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ALTAR   FIRES    RELIGHTED 
BY  STEPHEN  HASBROUCK 


Altar  Jtoa  Sritgl^pi 


A    STUDY   OF   MODERN    RELIGIOUS  TENDENCIES 
FROM   THE  STANDPOINT    OF    A    LAY   OBSERVER 


BY 


STEPHEN    HASBROUCK  ^         ^  i 


*  Truth  is  within  ourselves;  it  takes  no  rise  from 
outward  things;  whate'er  you  may  believe,  there  is 
an  inmost  centre  in  ourselves  where  Truth  abides 
in  fulness." 

— Robert  Browning  in  "Paracelsus." 


NEW    YORK 

THE  BURNETT  PUBLISHING  CO. 

64   WALL  STREET 
191 1 


THE  AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD 

^T'  HERE  is  little  in  the  pages  of  this  book  to  gratify  a  mere 
"^  curiosity  as  to  the  personality  of  the  author  and  why  he 
ivas  attracted  to  the  subject.  It  is  pre-eminently  an  instance 
where  the  message  which  the  book  is  intended  to  convey  is  the 
matter  of  supremest  concern.  What  moots  it,  then,  whether 
this  book  has  been  a  pleasant  pastime  in  a  busy  life  or  a  task 
which  has  so  glorified  the  day  as  to  remove  all  sense  of  fatigue 
and  to  fill  the  soul  of  the  writer  with  stirring,  inspirations  far 
beyond  his  power  to  body  forth  in  words;  what  matters  it 
whether  the  bearer  be  robed  in  homespun  or  broadcloth  so  long 
as  the  book  which  he  brings  to  you  is  very  much  worth  reading? 

John  Ruskin,  speaking  of  books  in  ''Sesame  and  Lilies,'* 
makes  this  observation :  "Whatever  bit  of  a  wise  man's  work 
is  honestly  and  benevolently  done,  that  bit  is  his  work  or  piece 
of  art.  It  is  always  mingled  with  fragments  ill-done,  with  re- 
dundant or  affected  work.  But  if  you  read  rightly  you  will 
easily  discover  the  true  bits,  and  these  are  the  book." 

Should  my  work  prove  to  be  ill-done  in  any  particular,  it  is 
from  no  lack  of  earnest  endeavor  to  avoid  the  faults  that 
Ruskin  has  pointed  out.  There  may  be  chaff  in  the  book. 
Nevertheless,  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  also  plenty  of  wheat 

vii 


to  be  found  among  it,  and  good  wheat,  too;  and  if  so,  let  me 
ask  that  you  zvill  take  pains  to  sift  out  the  wheat  and  throw 
the  chaff  away. 

Victor  Hugo,  one  of  the  most  versatile  and  fluent  of  writers, 
once  said,  after  half  a  century  spent  in  giving  expression  to  his 
thoughts  in  prose,  verse,  history,  romance,  satire  and  song,  '7 
feel  that  I  have  not  said  the  thousandth  part  of  what  is  in  me" 

I  am  conscious  of  having  succeeded  but  imperfectly  in  con- 
veying to  the  reader  all  that  has  stirred  within  me  concerning 
the  subjects  discussed  in  the  following  pages.  In  my  endeavor 
to  do  justice  to  the  transcendent  issues  with  which  the  book 
deals,  language  has  seemed  to  halt  perplexed  for  lack  of  words 
to  suitably  convey  to  others  the  great  thoughts  to  which  I  fain 
zvould  give  fitting  expression.  I  have  only  skirted  the  shores 
of  a  mighty  ocean  of  truth;  merely  outlined  certain  phases  of 
what  has  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  real,  the  vital  truth  about 
things,  judged  from  a  scientific  as  well  as  a  religious  standpoint. 

George  H.  Hepworth  once  expressed  his  gratification  that 
in  one  of  his  written  works  he  had  not  made  one  statement 
which  in  any  true  sense  could  be  called  original.  My  task  has 
been  essentially  one  of  fact-gathering.  I  make  no  claim  to 
originality  for  what  I  have  accomplished  in  this  direction.  I 
am  content  to  leave  the  facts  to  speak  for  themselves,  satisfied 
if  only  the  reader  be  interested  enough  to  study  them  carefully 
and  to  drazv  the  conclusions  which  they  naturally  suggest. 

This  is  an  era  when  the  world  is  feeling  its  need  of  God. 
These  are  days  when  everything  is!  pointing  soul-ward.  At  no 
time  in  its  history  has  there  been  a  more  insistent  inquiry  as  to 

viii 


whether  there  he  a  grain  of  certainty  in  those  spiritual  verities 
concerning  God,  the  existence  and  immortality  of  the  soul  and 
kindred  ideas  which  have  been  repeated  from  time  immemorial. 
Nor  is  the  demand  less  insistent  that  these  inquiries  which 
voice  a  soul-hunger  shall  be  well  and  truly  answered. 

I  have  tried  to  put  into  these  pages  that  which  will,  in  some 
measure  at  least,  answer  these  inquiries,  and  so  help  to  lead 
a  few  steps  onward  in  the  direction  of  the  truth  about  matters 
of  priceless  value  to  our  lives,  both  here  and  hereafter. 

If  you  read  carefully  I  am  persuaded  that  you  will  find  in 
this  book  a  message  of  helpful  import.  If  it  brings  aught  of 
cheer  and  inspiration  into  your  lives;  if  it  will  help  you  to 
the  attainment  of  those  higher  ideals  which  you  cherish;  if  it 
will  stir  you  to  give  to  others  the  best  that  is  in  you;  to  act, 
speak  and  live  the  truth,  not  counting  the  cost,  then  let  me 
believe  that  you  will  not  only  accept  this  message  for  yourself, 
but  will  pass  it  on  to  others,  that  thus  the  influence  of  this  book 
for  good  may  be  multiplied  a  thousand- fold. 


ORDER  AND  VARIETY  OF  TOPICS. 

Part  1 

CHAPTER  PAQE 

The  Author's  Preface xiii 

I,    The  Jury  of  the  Vicinage i 

II.    Science  Reaches  the  Borderland  of  Spirit 7 

III.  Kinship  With  the  Infinite 13 

IV.  The  Central  Figure  in  History 16 

Jesus   the   Christ 23 

Jesus  Christ  the  Supreme  Personality 26 

A  New  Spring  Time 29 

V.    Theological  Formulas  32 

VI.    The  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament 39 

VII.    Jesus'  Healing  Ministry 55 

VIII.    Insufficiency  of  Material  Remedies 66 

IX.    Attitude  of  the  Clergy  Toward  Christian  Healing  and 

Christian  Sctence 76 


Part  2 

chapter  page 

I.    Jesus  Christ  and  the  Traditionalists 89 

II.    A  New  Religious  Order 99 

III.  The  Founder  of  Christian  Science no 

Some  Personal  Characteristics 118 

The  Christian  Science  Text  Book 121 

Inception  of  the  Christian  Science  Church 126 

IV.  The  Christian  Science  Church  System  of  Government    130 

V.     Similarity  Between  the  Primitive  Christian   Church 

and  Christian  Science 142 

VI.    Spread  of  the  Movement 148 


Part  3 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Materialism  :    The  Bane 155 

II.    Is  Christian  Science  the  Antidote? 

Its  Teachings   168 

Its  Healing  Ministry 186 

Scientific  Statement  of  Being 199 

III.  Christian  Science;   Does  It  Conflict  With  the  Bible?  209 

IV.  The  Old  Order  Changeth 227 


i^art  4 


chapter  page 

I.    Organized  Christianity 

Some  Facts  and  Considerations 241 

II.    Organized  Christianity 

Existing  Conditions  and  Outlook 259 

III.  Church  Unity :    Is  It  Attainable? 273 

IV.  Organized    Christianity  : 

Its  Alternatives  As  To  Christian  Science 295 

V.    The  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 312 

VI.    Humanity  the  Heir 341 

VII.    The  Infinite  End 347 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 
I. 

THE  present  age  is  pre-eminently  one  in  which  reverence 
for  authority,  both  in  the  religious  and  the  scientific 
realm,  has  greatly  weakened,  and  to  a  large  extent  has  already 
passed  away.  Accepted  religious  dogmas  and  scientific  theories 
or  hypotheses  are  being  scrutinized  as  never  before  in  the 
history  of  ages.  There  is  a  growing  tendency  to  question  or 
challenge  much  of  that  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
regard  as  settled  religious  doctrine  or  scientifically  proved 
facts.  Beliefs  are  being  tested  in  the  crucible  fires  of  our  mod- 
ern publicity. 

There  has  been  a  destructive  upheaval  in  Religion  and 
Science  and  Philosophy  as  well,  in  which  much  of  the  work 
of  learned  theologians  and  equally  learned  scientists  and  phi- 
losophers have  been  repudiated  or  destroyed.  Much  of  our 
theology  has  gone  to  the  melting  pot,  and  with  it,  too,  has  gone 
a  great  mass  of  materialistic  theories  and  notions,  for  which 
thanks  be.  Materialism  is  fast  becoming  a  back  number.  The 
creeds,  dogmas  and  traditions  of  an  antiquated  ecclesiasticism 
and  many  of  the  affirmations  of  the  old  theology  no  longer 
command  the  assent  of  men  of  the  new  school  of  thought. 
Old  credal  conceptions  no  longer  harmonize  with  the  advance- 
ment of  science  nor  with  the  knowledge  of  historical  develop- 
ment, or  of  philosophy  and  criticism. 

The  old  fear  on  the  part  of  the  theologians  of  the  church, 
not  that  the  scientist  might  be  wrong,  but  that  he  might  be 
right  in  his  discoveries  of  the  secrets  of  nature,  is  fast  passing 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

away.  The  scientist,  the  geologist,  the  biologist,  the  astron- 
omer, the  chemist,  is  no  longer  charged  with  rashness  or  pre- 
sumption in  pursuing  their  investigations  of  objective  phe- 
nomena. Let  them  go  on  making  discoveries.  Let  them  show 
more  clearly  how  God  works  in  nature.  Let  science  continue 
its  correction  of  the  errors  of  material  sense,  undeterred  by 
the  anti-scientific  instinct  of  the  religionists,  which  is  no  longer 
hallowed  as  the  cardinal  virtue. 

The  world  is  beginning  to  realize  that  God  is  speaking 
through  two  voices  or  through  two  channels,  science  and  re- 
ligion; and  that  the  truth  which  they  both  seek  involves  no 
contradiction.  And  if  they  seem  not  to  be  in  harmony  with 
each  other,  it  is  because  we  are  not  listening  carefully,  or 
because  there  are  those  who  assume  to  speak  in  the  name  of 
religion  or  science,  who  are  not  His  mouthpiece. 

The  words  of  the  living  God  are  in  both  science  and  re- 
ligion. Science  is  giving  up  its  mock  belief  in  matter.  Religion 
is  learning  the  will  of  Heaven  from  within;  science  is  learn- 
ing it  from  without.  But  it  is  the  same  voice  to  which  they 
listen,  the  voice  of  Him  who  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth 
and  the  fountains  of  waters,  and  who  calls  upon  men  every- 
where to  worship  and  adore  His  great  name.  There  was  a 
time  when  the  High  Priests  of  Natural  Science  were  building 
their  altars  to  their  unknown  gods,  but  now  Science  and  Faith 
may  meet  around  a  common  altar  of  worship  dedicated  to  the 
one  only,  true  God.  The  spirit  of  genuine  science  is  found  to 
be  the  same  as  the  spirit  of  genuine  religion.  Both  scientist 
and  theologian  are  beginning  to  understand  that  the  truth 
which  is  the  object  of  faith  and  the  truth  which  is  the  object 
of  science  is  one.  For  what  is  science  but  the  search  for 
truth  and  what  is  religion  but  the  love  of  truth  applied  to 
practical  life. 

Orthodoxy  has  been  for  too  many  years  a  fata  morgana, 
"an  unsubstantial  vision  which  ever  eludes  our  groping  hand 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

and  surrenders  us  to  the  illusions  of  blind  sense."  Nor  should 
the  institutional  church  longer  remain  a  garden  walled  around 
to  keep  it  from  contact  with  the  stream  of  human  life  which 
flows  through  and  thrills  the  heart  of  man.  The  world  be- 
lieves in  God  never  more  than  now,  but  its  God  is  not  con- 
tained in  a  mere  church  formula.  *'It  believes  in  the  elemental, 
eternal,  immutable  things  of  everlasting  righteousness,"  says 
the  Universalist  Leader,  "but  it  only  smiles  incredulously  when 
some  self-appointed  vicar  of  the  Almighty  prepares  his  map 
of  the  everlasting  years  and  denounces  those  as  unbelievers 
who  will  not  travel  toward  the  forever  on  his  schedule."  We 
are  in  the  midst  of  a  great  revival  of  interest  in  religious  ideas 
and  beliefs.  ''Recent  discussions  and  controversies  have  caught 
the  ear  of  the  man  in  the  street,"  says  the  British  Congrega- 
tionalist,  "and  has  moved  him  to  strike  in  and  take  a  share. 
Theological  reconstruction  is  becoming  a  familiar  phrase." 

What  is  happening  is  not  an  outbreak  of  caprice,  here  and 
there,  but  a  mental  and  moral  revolution  as  resistless  as  the 
tide.  The  Christian  Register  has  these  forcible  words  from 
the  pen  of  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Jayness,  which  have  a  significant  con- 
nection with  the  foregoing: 

"A  revolution  is  occurring  in  the  social  order  such  as  the 
world  has  never  seen  before.  A  change  is  coming  over  the 
face  of  society, — a  change  in  our  conceptions  of  God  and  man, 
a  change  in  our  ideas  of  social  responsibility,  a  change  in  our 
thinking  in  regard  to  the  economic  values  of  life.  The  church 
hears  less  of  the  intoning  of  the  creed  and  more  of  the  prayer, 
'Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.'  Everywhere  there  is  upper- 
most a  discontent  with  existing  conditions  and  the  feverish  de- 
sire to  improve  them." 

Less  and  less  are  men  disposed  to  bow  down  to  their  fellow 
men  believing  them  to  be  the  depositaries  of  divine  inspiration. 
Orthodox  Christianity  and  its  priesthood  are  being  put  to  the 
pragmatic  test — "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  The 
giving  of  one's  mere  personal  opinion  in  the  guise  of  the  tra- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

ditional  sermon  is  not  reaching  and  holding  the  pubHc,  nor  is 
it  accomplishing  the  purpose  for  which  religious  services  are 
held. 

The  Rev.  Johnston  Meyers,  in  a  lecture  delivered  to  a 
class  of  divinity  students  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  makes 
this  significant  statement:  "Mere  preaching  holds  a  minor 
place  in  the  work  of  the  church  nowadays;  people  are  tired 
of  it.  This  is  not  the  age  of  the  sermon."  The  Rev.  Howard 
Allen  Bridgman,  of  the  Congregationalist,  Boston,  dealing 
with  the  same  subject,  declares:  "the  stern  fact  remains  that 
our  churches  to-day  do  not  appeal  to  men  to  that  extent  and 
that  magnetic  force  that  we  could  desire." 

In  an  article  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  a  few  years  ago.  Dr. 
Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  dealt  in  trenchant  fashion  with  the  sub- 
ject of  ministerial  limitations.  "Secure  within  the  citadel  of 
tradition,"  says  he;  "from  its  battlement,  looking  down  over 
the  non-conforming  world,  a  man  may  have  a  ministerial  idea 
which,  like  a  spectre  of  Brocken,  is  only  an  enlarged  and 
shadowy  reproduction  of  himself." 

The  time  has  come  when  science  need  no  longer  be  pilloried 
in  the  name  of  religion  or  religion  be  denounced  as  supersti- 
tion. The  traditional  conception  of  science  and  religion  as 
something  to  be  sought  in  their  externalities,  is  giving  way  to 
a  better  understanding  of  the  real,  the  innermost  spirit  of 
each  as  Truth-seekers,  Truth-finders  and  Truth-practicers. 
Science  is  becoming  a  Jacob's  ladder  which,  as  Dr.  Paul  Carus 
has  felicitously  said,  "touches  at  its  bottom  the  world  of  sense, 
while  at  its  top  it  reaches  the  heaven  of  spirit." 

What,  then,  is  the  innermost  meaning  of  these  days?  What 
of  its  foreshadowings  and  portents?  Do  they  presage  the 
coming  in  of  a  new-old  religion  which  shall  be  new  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  its  adjustments  to  modern  scientific  ways  of  think- 
ing, and  old  in  its  grasp  and  possession  of  the  essential,  the 
elemental,  the  vital  truths  of  the  gospel  of  the  New  Testa- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

ment  ?    Is  the  vision  of  the  Brampton  lecturer  in  the  pulpit  of 
St.  Marys,  Oxford,  about  to  be  realized? 

"I  see  the  rise  of  a  new  religious  order,  the  greatest  that  the 
world  has  known,  drawn  from  all  nations  and  classes,  and, 
what  seems  stranger  yet,  from  all  churches." 

II. 

We  hear  much  in  these  practical  days  of  the  pragmatist, 
and  the  pragmatic  method.  Pragmatism  is  that  doctrine  or 
philosophical  system,  whichever  you  may  call  it,  which  seeks 
the  meaning  of  truth  only  in  a  pragmatic  usefulness.  Its  dic- 
tum, in  a  nutshell,  is  that  "that  is  true  that  works."  Prag- 
matism implies  that  truth  shall  have  practical  consequences 
and  that  we  may  justly  judge  a  tree  by  its  fruits.  It  is  in  har- 
mony with  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament. 

Christ  Jesus  was  a  pragmatist  and  measured  religion  by  its 
fruits.  He  followed  the  pragmatic  method  in  his  answer  to 
John  the  Baptist's  inquiry  concerning  His  claim  to  the  Messiah- 
ship  :  "Art  thou  He  that  should  come,  or  do  we  look  for  an- 
other?" The  answer  which  John's  messengers  received  from 
the  Great  Teacher  and  Demonstrator  was  couched  in  terms 
of  practical  experience.  "Go  and  show  John  again  those  things 
which  ye  do  hear  and  see:  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  and 
the  lame  walk ;  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear ;  the 
dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to 
them." 

What  a  thing  really  is  appears  from  what  it  does.  Many  a 
religious  doctrine,  many  a  political  platform  or  philosophical 
system  of  more  or  less  reasoned  ideas,  many  a  hypothesis 
evolved  in  the  workshop  of  human  conjecture,  has  seemed  on 
paper  to  be  all  that  a  Plato,  a  Moore  or  a  Bellamy  could  dream, 
but  when  subjected  in  human  experience  to  a  "destructive  dose 
of  facts"  has  shattered  every  hope  which  it  inspired.  Herbert 
Spencer  once  told  Huxley  that  he  had  written  a  tragedy  in  his 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

youth.  "1  know  the  plot,"  said  Huxley.  "It  was  a  beautiful 
theory  that  was  slain  by  a  wicked  little  fact." 

Rousseau,  the  idealistic  reformer  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, made  a  new  declaration  of  human  rights,  but  it  ended  in 
the  terrors  and  savageries  of  the  French  Revolution.  What 
this  age  demands  is  a  higher  platform  of  human  rights  than 
that  of  Rousseau ;  a  platform  built  on  diviner  claims ;  one  that 
will  deliver  mankind  from  the  slavery  of  false  beliefs  and  so 
ultimate  in  the  downfall  of  all  tyranny  and  oppression.  But 
to  affirm  whatever  one  pleases  is  no  proof  of  understanding; 
the  anarchist,  the  socialist,  the  visionary,  can  do  this  to  his 
heart's  content;  so  likewise  can  the  blatant  reformer  or  the 
political  demagogue;  nevertheless  there  is  no  certainty  that 
harm  will  not  dog  their  footsteps.  The  growth  of  knowledge 
may  turn  many  an  aphorism  into  either  a  platitude  or  a  fallacy. 

"Most  of  the  psychological  literature  of  the  day  is  waste 
paper,"  says  Haeckel,  the  German  scientist  and  philosopher. 
And  what  is  true  of  psychology  is  true  of  the  literature  of 
human  knowledge  in  general.  The  world  is  turning  itself 
inside  out  so  fast  that  most  of  our  present  text-books  on 
science,  theology,  physiology  and  medicine,  will  soon  find  a 
place  in  that  "Curio  of  Antiquities"  which  Professor  James 
has  so  deHghtfully  instituted  for  outlived  theories,  dogmas, 
faiths  and  the  bric-a-brac  of  human  knowledge  which  has  no 
further  value  except  as  relics  of  the  past,  and  tokens  whereby 
human  progress  may  be  measured. 

III. 

There  are  multiplied  instances  to  show  that  not  only  thfe 
religious  but  the  scientific  temper  of  the  age  is  becoming  more 
devout.  We  want  science,  but  we  also  want  and  need  re- 
ligion. These  two  great  forces  should  no  longer  remain  an- 
tagonistic to  each  other.  Their  transforming  power  over  the 
conditions  of  human  life,  when  combined,  is  well  nigh  beyond 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

our  present  conception.  Such  union  would  bring  an  answer 
to  the  prayer  of  ages ;  even  the  reahzation  of  that  divine  ideal — 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 

Where,  then,  shall  we  look  for  a  religion  which  is  religious 
because  it  is  of  God  and  which  is  scientific  because  it  is 
founded  upon  eternal  Principle  instead  of  human  doctrines  or 
blind  faith,  and  which  will  meet  human  want  in  sickness  as 
well  as  in  health?  We  can  find  many  a  philosophical  system 
Vvhich  we  may  throw  away  because  it  is  not  religious  enough. 
We  may  turn  to  scholastic  theology,  only  to  find  that  it  is  not 
empirical  enough  to  suit  the  views  and  purposes  of  those  with 
a  fact-loving  temperament  To  use  a  phrase  coined  by  Pro- 
fessor William  James,.  "There  is  that  'Rocky  Mountain  tough,' 
Haeckel,  with  his  materiaHstic  monism,  his  ether  god  and 
brutal  jest  at  the  Christian's  God  as  a  'gaseous  vertebrate.' 
And  there  is  that  materialistic  philosopher,  Herbert  Spencer, 
treating  the  world's  history  as  a  redistribution  of  matter  and 
motion  solely,  but  you  will  find  both  Haeckel  and  Spencer 
bowing  religion  politely  out  of  the  front  door ;  'she  may  indeed 
continue  to  exist,  but  she  must  never  show  her  face  inside  the 
temple.'  " 

In  what  direction  shall  we  turn  to  find  a  rehgion  that  is 
scientific  enough  to  satisfy  the  man  who  wants  facts,  and 
which  at  the  same  time  is  religious  enough  to  satisfy  the  man 
of  feeling,  emotion  and  Christian  faith  ?  Will  a  study  of  facts 
and  conditions  in  the  religious  world  of  to-day  disclose  to  our 
view  that  which  will  prove  a  happy  harmonizer  of  empirical 
ways  of  things  with  the  more  religious  demands  of  human 
beings?  Will  such  an  investigation  give  us  any  hint  of  a  sys- 
tem that  is  demonstrably  true,,  or  of  a  rehgion  that  is  both 
Christian  and  scientific;  one  that  sounds  an  active,  optimistic 
and  aggressive  note;  that  does  not  dwell  upon  an  inaccessible 
height  of  mere  idealism;  that  is  something  more  than  the 
shallow,  airy  vaporings  of  current  theological  or  metaphysical 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

abstraction,  or  a  mere  bundle  of  paradoxical  theories;  some- 
thing, in  fact,  which  has  a  firm  grasp  upon  reality  and  will 
reconcile  both  science  and  religion  "with  signs  following?"  To 
quote  a  learned  speaker  at  the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions 
held  in  Chicago  in  1893,  "the  world  is  waiting  for  the  man  of 
genius,  who  shall  come  forward  and  establish  union  between 
science  and  Christianity." 

Let  me  repeat  the  question  again :  Is  it  possible  to  find  a 
religion  that  will  not  only  exercise  the  powers  of  the  soul  in 
its  subjective  states  of  religious  experience,  but  will  have  a 
positive  and  direct  connection  with  the  actual  world  of  finite 
human  lives;  that  will  be  in  definite  touch  with  concrete  facts 
and  joys  and  sorrows ;  that  will  satisfy  the  scientific,  fact-lov- 
ing mind  because  it  is  based  on  a  scientific,  demonstrable  Prin- 
ciple; because  it  is  practical  and  operative  and  produces  re- 
sults which  can  be  seen  and  known  of  all  men ;  something,  in 
short,  destined  to  abide  because  it  can  be  made  practical  and 
because  it  meets  and  satisfies  the  fulness  of  man's  needs? 

This  age  is  becoming  more  and  more  insistent  in  its  de- 
mand for  a  religion  that  will  exert  a  vital  influence  upon  the 
controlling  forces  of  human  life;  that  need  not  be  banished 
from  the  home,  or  outlawed  from  education  and  have  no  place 
in  the  world  of  living  thought;  a  religion,  in  short,  which  is 
something  higher,  better  and  more  satisfactory  than  mere 
religious  formalism.  These  questions  have  a  deep  significance 
in  these  latter  days  inasmuch  as  Jesus  taught  and  demonstrated 
that  there  is  available  to  man  a  religion  which  is  scientific  and 
so  unerring  and  so  comprehensive  in  its  nature  and  operation 
as  actually  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  race  in  overcoming  all  ills ; 
this  religion  and  this  science  is  the  Christianity  of  the  New 
Testament;  it  is  the  knowledge  of  God  and  His  eternal  laws, 
and  it  achieves  the  purposes  of  good. 


xz 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

IV. 

There  are  multitudes  of  men  and  women,  religiously  in- 
clined, who  find  little  in  Protestant  creeds  and  formulas  to  at- 
tract them.  The  Roman  Church  on  the  other  hand,  repels 
them  by  its  absolutism.  In  this  age  of  spiritual  liberty  for  the 
individual,  an  age  becoming  more  and  more  pre-eminent  for 
its  emancipation  of  the  spiritual  man,  it  is  doubtful  if  they 
could  present  credentials  of  beHef  sufficiently  orthodox  upon 
which  to  gain  admission  to  any  of  the  evangelical  churches. 

Men  everywhere  are  coming  out  into  the  open.  Religiously 
speaking,  they  are  breathing  the  air  of  spiritual  freedom,  un- 
fettered by  outworn  dogmas,  creeds  and  theological  formulas. 
There  are  not  wanting  signs  of  a  deepening  spirit  of  true  re- 
ligion, of  a  spiritual  receptivity  and  of  a  truer  Christianity, 
that,  "rising  from  the  death  of  sectarianism,"  as  Dr.  Newman 
Smyth  has  well  observed,  "will  be  fashioned  of  the  spiritual 
elements  and  made  luminous  with  love,  and  yet  be  so  visible 
wherever  its  disciples  meet  together,  that  the  presence  of  the 
glory  of  Christ  will  be  made  manifest  even  as  He  prayed." 

The  thought  of  some  new,  more  universal  order  of  Chris- 
tianity is  coming  to  men's  minds  spontaneously  and  generally. 
But  how  to  solve  the  problem  of  religious  modes  and  methods 
with  the  largest  liberty  of  thought ;  how  to  reconcile  the  free- 
dom of  the  spirit  with  an  outward  order,  how  to  find  the 
source  and  vitality  of  religion  in  immediate  personal  experience, 
and  yet  maintain  Christianity  as  a  visible  and  supreme  author- 
ity in  the  world ;  this  indeed  is  a  task  which  calls  for  the  high- 
est, most  consummate  constructive  religious  statesmanship. 

We  are  witnessing  a  crisis  in  the  domain  of  religious 
authority.  And  at  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  church  has 
the  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Truth  which 
He  proclaimed,  been  so  deeply  felt.  The  idea  of  a  Christian 
society  based  on  a  personal  and  vital  fellowship  with  Jesus 
Christ  is  becoming  enthroned  in  men's  mind.     The  question, 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

book;  will  they  stand  examination  by  the  Jury  as  a  body  of 
critics;  will  they  be  approved  as  germane  to  the  subject,  or  are 
they  likely  to  be  thrown  out  of  court,  in  part  or  in  whole,  as 
invalid  testimony?" 

The  quest  which  I  have  undertaken  has  been  a  quest  for 
the  vital  truth,  for  ultimate  realities.  The  standpoint  which  I 
have  taken  is  that  of  the  lay  observer.  The  motto  which  I 
have  held  constantly  before  me  has  been  this :  "Give  the  Jury 
the  evidence  which  you  are  able  to  collect  and  let  its  members, 
as  a  Court  of  last  resort,  jointly  and  severally  thrash  out  the 
Truth." 

In  marshalling  my  facts  I  have  tried  to  remember  that 
there  are  sincere,  honest-minded  men  and  women  who  hold 
opinions  the  reverse  of  my  own ;  and  by  this  I  mean  the  kind 
of  people  who  are  what  might  be  termed  thorough-going  con- 
servatists ;  who  cling  tenaciously  to  the  faith  of  the  fathers  and 
would  hesitate  to  accept  an  invitation  to  tread  the  pathway  of 
that  genial  and  radiant  optimism  which  to  me  seems  so  allur- 
ing. Nor  have  I  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that,  while  the  Idealist 
undoubtedly  succeeds  from  time  to  time  in  ridding  the  world 
of  "antiquated  and  useless  baggage,"  the  conservative  per- 
forms quite  as  useful  a  part  in  saving  the  priceless  things  that 
maintain  an  unchanging  worth  through  every  generation.  Even 
though  the  liberal  may  offer  many  a  new  and  inspiring  idea 
of  betterment  for  mankind,  it  is  the  conservative  to  whom  we 
must  look  for  protection  from  fraudulent  imitations  which 
have  no  real  or  substantial  value. 

There  are  doubtless  members  of  the  Jury  who  are  in  the 
habit  of  studying  the  questions  and  occurrences  of  the  day; 
who  are  accustomed  to  form  opinions  of  their  own  and  to  stick 
to  them  through  thick  and  thin,  and  who,  consequently,  may 
not  be  at  all  disposed  to  accept  everything  that  I  may  present, 
unless  supported  by  a  convincing  array  of  facts.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  I  trust  that  no  member  of  the  Jury  will  be  lacking  in 

2 


THE    JURY    OF    THE    VICINAGE 

courage  and  readiness  to  subject  his  or  her  own  personal 
opinions  and  beliefs  to  an  honest  review  in  the  light  of  the 
facts  which  I  have  gathered.  None  of  us  can  lay  claim  to  in- 
fallibility on  any  given  subject;  besides,  infallibility  is  a  thing 
to  be  not  merely  proclaimed ;  it  is  a  thing  to  be  demonstrated. 
Let  us,  therefore,  study  all  the  facts  within  our  purview  with 
an  open  mind,  lest  it  should  happen  that  the  beliefs  which  we 
entertain  prove  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  truth,  and  ourselves 
out  of  harmony  with  reality. 

Our  Jury,  no  doubt,  includes  men  and  women  of  differing 
creeds  and  varying  knowledge  of  the  subjects  which  I  have 
undertaken  to  discuss.  Differences  of  opinion  may  arise;  let 
us  believe  that  there  will  be  no  irreconcilable  divergence  of 
views  on  the  main  issues  and  no  difficulty  in  reaching  a  ver- 
dict from  which  there  will  be  no  occasion  to  appeal  to  some 
higher  tribunal. 

In  our  search  for  truth  let  us  neither  be  too  tolerant  nor 
too  critical.  We  all  know  that  there  are  men  of  science  and 
theology  and  medicine  as  well,  with  limited  views  and  com- 
placent opinions,  who  are  intolerant  of  all  that  does  not  agree 
with  those  theories  or  doctrines  which  they  consider  well  es- 
tablished. But  we  must  not  overlook  recent  developments,  not 
only  in  the  realm  of  science  but  in  the  realm  of  religion  and 
medicine  as  well,  nor  the  significant  fact  that  they  are  changing 
in  a  revolutionary  way  some  of  our  established  ideas  on  these 
subjects. 

This  is  a  day  and  age  of  practical  things,  in  which  outworn 
and  outgrown  theories  are  being  relegated  to  obscurity,  where 
they  properly  belong.  We  live  in  an  epoch-making  period,  an 
age  eminent  for  its  vast  extensions  of  knowledge.  New  views 
of  truth  are  constantly  emerging  and  it  is  not  safe  to  condemn 
new  ideas  because  they  are  contradictory  to  our  own.  It  is 
better  to  face  the  facts  as  we  find  them,  rather  than  to  follow 
the  customary  way  of  condemning  too  harshly  new  facts  and 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

phenomena,  new  opinions  and  new  beliefs  that  make  a  serious 
arraignment  of  our  own  precious  stock  of  ideas  or  convictions 
and  experiences,  or,  what  is  worse,  of  ignoring  them  altogether, 
and  abusing  those  who  bear  witness  to  them,  or  else  of  visiting 
them  with  a  hailstorm  of  contempt  and  ridicule. 

From  the  time  of  Protagoras,  with  his  famous  dictum, 
"Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things,"  down  to  the  present  time, 
every  great  movement  in  human  thought  has  had  to  run  the 
gantlet  of  criticism;  nor  need  I  remind  the  Jury  that  nothing 
is  easier  than  to  criticize ;  nothing  less  constructive. 

"Qear  knowledge  of  what  one  does  not  know  is  just  as 
important  as  knowing  what  one  does  know,"  declares  Huxley. 
Again  this  great  scientist  and  philosopher  says:  "Take  noth- 
ing for  truth  without  clear  knowledge  that  it  is  such ;  consider 
all  beliefs  open  to  criticism  and  regard  the  value  of  authority 
as  neither  greater  nor  less  than  as  much  as  it  can  prove  itself 
to  be  worth."  He  continues,  "The  modern  spirit  is  not  the 
spirit  which  always  denies,  delighting  only  in  destruction ;  still 
less  is  it  that  which  builds  castles  in  the  air  rather  than  not 
construct.  It  is  that  spirit  which  works  and  will  work,  'with- 
out haste  and  without  waste,'  gathering  harvest  after  harvest 
of  truth  into  its  barns  and  devouring  error  with  unquenchable 
fires."^ 

The  distinguishing  mark  and  characteristic  of  true  intelli- 
gence is,  that  we  shall  be  able  to  discern  that  what  is  false  is 
false  and  what  is  true  is  true,  thereby  attaining  that  degree  of 
understanding  which  will  enable  us  to  strip  off  the  disguise 
which  human  credulity  has  so  thrown  about  the  unrealities  of 
life  as  to  make  that  appear  real  which  has  no  reality  nor  sub- 
stance. 

That  was  a  true  saying  of  an  ancient  philosopher,  "The 
great  man  is  he  who  has  kept  his  child  heart."  It  recalls  a 
bit  of  suggestive  counsel,  attributed  to  a  famous  scientist  which 

'Huxley's  "Hume,"  page  8. 

4 


THE    JURY    OF    THE    VICINAGE 

we  may  not  inappropriately  offer  just  here :  ''Sit  down  before 
all  the  facts  as  a  little  child."  And  is  it  not  said  in  the  Book  of 
Books,  by  one  who  spake  as  never  man  spake,  "Except  ye  be 
converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven"  ? 

We  live  in  a  world  of  reaHties  that  can  be  infinitely  useful, 
and  the  importance  to  human  life  of  having  true  beliefs  about 
matters  of  fact  is  not  easily  overestimated.  It  is  our  duty  not 
only  to  be  keenly  alive  to  the  facts  embraced  within  the  field 
of  our  own  observation  and  experience,  but  to  be  alert  to 
those  facts  which  are  borne  in  upon  us  through  the  study  and 
research  of  others.  And  if  these  facts  do  not  coincide  with 
pet  theories  which  we  may  entertain,  however  plausible  they 
may  seem  to  us,  let  us  not  say  "so  much  the  worse  for  the 
facts."  Facts  are  stubborn  things,  and  our  theories  should  be 
retained  only  so  long  as  they  will  square  with  these  facts.  A 
theory  at  best  is  only  a  convenient  method  of  classifying  em- 
pirical data.  We  have  a  perfect  right  to  insist  that  new  the- 
ories presented  for  our  acceptance  shall  adequately  justify 
themselves  by  the  facts,  and  this  is  the  pragmatic  test  to  which 
we  have  already  alluded.  But  whenever  we  give  expression  to 
views  that  are  not  in  agreement  with  inherited  beliefs  we  may 
expect  to  be  the  target  for  epithets  borrowed  from  the  darkest 
terms  of  mediaeval  persecution.  But  what  matter  if  the  insight 
or  truth  we  bring  is  one  to  enrich  the  life  of  the  spirit  or  cor- 
rect the  errors  of  sense. 

The  old  Ptolemaic  theory  of  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  was  based  on  sense  impressions  which  clearly  indicate 
to  us  that  the  earth  is  stationary  and  that  the  sun  revolves 
around  it  in  a  westward  direction  during  the  day  time.  If  we 
depend  upon  our  organs  of  sight  to  tell  us  what  is  true  and 
what  is  false  about  the  motions  of  the  solar  system  we  may  as 
well  accept  the  dictum  of  Jasper,  the  old  Virginian  darkey 
preacher,  and  insist  that  it  is  not  the  earth  but  the  sun  that 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

"do  move."  But  this  Ptolemaic  theory  which  mankind  held 
for  centuries  was  upset  years  ago  by  the  facts  which  Coper- 
nicus brought  to  light. 

We  all  read  facts  differently,  and  what  we  may  say  about 
reality  or  truth  depends  largely  upon  the  perspective  into  which 
we  may  throw  them.  The  facts  which  I  have  gathered  per- 
taining to  existing  conditions  and  fundamental  principles  in 
the  religious  and  the  scientific  worlds  of  to-day  are  now  in  your 
hands.  I  have  endeavored  to  present  these  facts  in  such  man- 
ner that  you  may  be  able  to  see  them  in  a  true  perspective  and 
so  reach  correct  conclusions  concerning  the  issues  involved  and 
the  outcome  thereof.  I  ask  you  to  well  and  truly  consider  this 
evidence  in  the  spirit  of  these  introductory  remarks. 

Let  me  premise  just  here  that  neither  the  literary  quality  of 
the  work  nor  my  motive  in  writing  this  book  is  the  trial  issue 
in  this  case.  It  is  for  you  to  accept,  if  you  will,  the  task  of 
rightly  interpreting  the  facts  and  the  message  which  the  book 
contains  in  the  interest  of  that  better  understanding  of  the 
real,  the  absolute  truth  about  things,  which  we  are  all  seeking 
to  attain ;  that  truth  which  some  day  will  revolutionize  the  con- 
clusions of  human  knowledge  concerning  man  and  the  universe 
and  its  great  Creator,  and  bring  the  fruition  in  human  history 
of  the  purposes  of  the  Eternal. 


II. 

SCIENCE  REACHES  THE  BORDERLAND  OF  SPIRIT 

DURING  recent  years  there  has  been  a  revolutionary  over- 
turning of  many  of  those  underlying  principles  of  natural 
science,  which  have  heretofore  been  considered  as  firmly  estab- 
lished. Scientific  discoveries  have  followed  each  other  in  quick 
succession,  notably  the  Roentgen  rays  in  1895,  and  the  Bec- 
querel  rays  in  the  year  following.  Then  came  the  discovery  of 
radium  in  1898;  since  then  other  important  discoveries  or 
scientific  speculations  have  followed  along  the  line  of  atomic 
disintegration,  the  transformation  of  matter,  the  thermal  effects 
of  radio-activity  and  intra-atomic  energy. 

Faraday  produced  the  theory  of  lines  of  force,  but  the 
mathematicians  immediately  attacked  it ;  La  Place  and  Poisson 
have  ''befuddled"  us  by  their  objections  to  the  undulating 
theory  of  light  propounded  by  Young  and  Fresnel;  Ampere 
developed  a  theory  of  magnetism,  but  Poisson  and  Weber  were 
not  behind  him  in  theories  of  their  own  on  this  subject.  Max- 
well wrote  a  treatise  on  electricity,  which  according  to  Profes- 
sor Foley,  of  the  Indiana  University,  "few  could  read  and  no 
one  could  fully  understand,"  because  of  the  fact  that  his  ideas 
of  electric  displacements  and  displacement  currents  were  bound 
up  in  equations  without  experimental  verification  and  gave 
only  the  vaguest  notion  of  the  subject. 

Science  has  been  accustomed  to  regard  matter  and  energy 
as  the  two  great  entities  with  which  it  has  to  deal,  but  more 
recent  research  into  the  nature  of  the  atoms  of  which  matter  is 
supposedly  composed,  has  given  rise  to  the  theory  that  matter 
in  the  ultimate  analysis  may  be  found  to  be  only  ether  in  mo- 

7 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

tion,  or  something  which  can  be  resolved  into  electricity  and 
then  into  some  unimagined  mode  of  motion  of  the  ether  and 
that  ultimately  it  will  be  found  that  atoms  have  their  day  and 
then  cease  to  be.  The  earlier  conceptions  of  matter  as  an 
eternal  and  indestructible  entity  has  been  rudely  shattered. 
The  theory  which  confers  upon  matter  the  attributes  of  life, 
intelligence  and  sensation,  has  gone  by  the  board,  leaving  the 
materialist  at  sea  as  to  the  guiding  entity  or  principle  under- 
lying all  the  changes  of  form  which  constantly  occur  in  nature. 

Matter,  as  we  have  already  seen,  has  been  reduced  to  elec- 
tric charge,  and  we  can  now  take  our  choice  of  a  variety  of 
different  theofies  propounded  by  science  to  explain  its  nature. 
There  is,  for  instance,  the  one-fluid  theory,  the  two-fluid  theory 
and  the  potential  theory.  It  is  claimed  that  there  are  strong 
reasons  for  believing  not  only  in  the  electrical  nature  of  matter, 
but  in  the  molecular  structure  of  electricity  itself,  to  say  noth- 
ing as  to  the  dependence  of  mass  upon  velocity,  and  the  theories 
of  radio-activity  and  disintegration  of  matter.  Then  there  is 
the  nineteenth  century  school  of  plenum,  one  ether  for  light, 
heat,  electricity  and  magnetism. 

"The  ether  was  appealed  to  from  every  quarter.  Light, 
radiant  heat  and  electric  waves  were  ether  waves;  an  electric 
charge  was  an  ether  strain ;  an  electric  current  was  a  phenom- 
enon in  the  ether  and  not  in  the  wave  in  which  it  appeared  to 
flow.  Magnetism  and  gravitation  were  phenomena  of  the 
ether;  matter  itself  became  an  aggregation  of  ether  vortices; 
ether  and  motion  were  expected  to  explain  everything."^ 

But  matter  has  no  real  substance  or  entity ;  it  is  neither  self- 
creative  or  self -existent.  Cause  does  not  exist  in  matter  nor 
mortal  mind  nor  in  physical  forces.  Earlier  conceptions  of  the 
indestructibility  of  matter  is  giving  way  to  the  conviction  that 

^Prof.  Arthur  L.  Foley,  in  "Recent  Developments  in  Physi- 
cal Science,"  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  November, 
1910. 

8 


SCIENCE  REACHES  THE  BORDERLAND  OF  SPIRIT 

its  destruction  and  creation  by  man  are  within  the  range  of 
scientific  possibiHties.  So  far  as  material  properties  or  any- 
inherent  energy  or  reality  is  concerned,  it  has  none.  Motion, 
or  force,  or  energy,  or  vibration,  are  not  intelligent,  hence  are 
not  in  any  sense  creators  of  aught  that  exists  in  nature. 
Changes  in  physical  phenomena  are  due  to  force  or  energy  or 
ether  strains  and  are  thus  reduced  to  idealistic  forces  which 
are  beyond  the  cognizance  of  the  senses.  They  cannot  be  seen 
or  measured.  They  are  only  known  by  certain  effects  com- 
monly attributed  to  them.  To-day  even  such  important  theo- 
ries as  those  of  the  conservation  of  matter  and  energy  are 
being  seriously  questioned. 

The  old  theories  of  philosophy  and  science  are  being  rapidly 
undermined  or  discarded.  Materialism  as  a  theory  is  going  out 
of  fashion.  It  is  only  a  short  time  ago  that  the  eminent 
astronomer,  Professor  Larkin,  made  this  observation:  "It  is 
now  a  full  year  since  any  book,  pamphlet  or  letter  has  been 
received  here  containing  arguments  against  the  scientific  neces- 
sity for  the  existence  of  a  Creator  to  account  for  the  universe. 
Whole  rows  of  books  teaching  that  matter  is  eternal  and  was 
not  created,  that  it  originated  itself,  that  it  had  no  origin,  is 
self-existent,  and  like  doctrines,  the  accumulation  of  years, 
books  sent  for  review,  are  in  the  library.  They  have  lost  their 
attraction  for  me.  For  science  now  imperatively  demands  a 
Conscious  Power  within  protoplasm — the  only  living  substance. 
And  science  knows  that  this  Power  is  mental." 

The  best  minds  in  the  scientific  world  to-day  are  freely  ad- 
mitting that  the  conclusions  of  biology  concerning  the  begin- 
ning of  life  in  protoplasm  are  not  conclusive,  that  back  of  the 
living  cell  there  must  be  an  intelligent  Power. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  in  his  recent  volume,  "Reason  and  Be- 
lief," insists  that  there  'is  no  real  contradiction  between  the 
discoverers  of  science  and  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace,  quite  as  responsible  as  Darwin,  if  not  more  so. 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

for  the  modern  theory  of  evolution,  has  become  firmly  con- 
vinced that  the  latest  investigations  of  science  inevitably  point 
to  God  as  the  logical  Creator  and  to  immortality  as  the  only 
logical  completion  of  life.  His  latest  book  which  teaches  this 
doctrine  is  now  in  course  of  publication. 

"I  know  of  but  six  persons,"  says  Graham  Hood  in  a  recent 
article  entitled,  "Science  and  Divinity,"  "who  even  claim  to 
hold  to  materialism,  and  I  am  not  quite  certain  as  to  the  sin- 
cerity of  two  or  three  of  these  exceptional  individuals.  Twenty 
years  ago  I  could  have  named  full  one  hundred  sincere  mate- 
rialists. In  those  times  agnosticism  was  the  fashion.  Spencer 
was  teaching  his  doctrine  of  the  Unknowable,  and  the  expo- 
nents of  Darwinism  were  finding  so  much  evidence  to  sub- 
stantiate their  claims  for  the  descent  of  man  that  they  utterly 
overlooked  the  fact  that  they  had  accounted  but  for  one  part 
of  man's  being,  and  that  the  purely  physical.  Back  of  the 
physical  man,  however,  there  was  another  nature  that  de- 
manded recognition,  and  though  many  were  deaf  to  its  exist- 
ence then,  even  the  sane  and  natural  skeptical  scientist  now 
knows  that  this,  the  most  vital  part  of  man,  can  only  be  ac- 
counted for  by  admitting  the  truths  that  the  Bible  has  ever 
taught — ^that  'in  the  beginning  God  created.'  " 

Science,  pursuing  its  investigations,  finds  the  evidence  of 
energies  of  which  it  scarcely  dreamed  a  short  time  ago.  What- 
ever the  scientist  may  call  it,  whether  this  energy  be  intra- 
atomic,  sub-atomic,  inter-elemental,  or  be  described  by  some 
other  name  he  knows  that  it  exists  and  that  it  exists  in  quanti- 
ties far  beyond  the  power  of  man's  mind  to  comprehend.  The 
scientist  hopes  some  day,  somewhere,  somehow,  to  discover 
the  means  of  unlocking  this  infinite  storehouse,  and  "if  this 
discovery  is  made,"  as  Professor  Foley  observes,  "all  others 
which  have  been  ever  made  will  pale  into  insignificance  be- 
side it." 

"There  are  no  signs  and  never  were  of  an  approach  to 

10 


SCIENCE  REACHES  THE  BORDERLAND  OF  SPIRIT 

finality  in  science,"  says  Sir  William  Crookes,  in  a  lecture  on 
radiant  matter.  "But  we  seem  at  length  to  have  within  our 
grasp  and  obedient  to  our  control,  the  little  invisible  particles 
which  with  good  warrant  are  supposed  to  constitute  the  physi- 
cal basis  of  the  universe.  We  have  actually  touched  the  border- 
land where  matter  and  force  seem  to  merge  into  one  another 
— the  shadowy  realm  between  known  and  unknown — where, 
it  seems  to  me,  lie  ultimate  realities,  subtle,  far-reaching, 
wonderful." 

It  is  now  but  a  step  out  of  matter  into  Spirit.  Natural 
science  has  indeed  reached  the  borderland  but  it  is  the  border- 
land where  Spirit,  God,  the  Divine  Mind,  the  Divine  Energy, 
reigns,  and  here  and  not  in  matter  lie  the  ultimate  realities. 
The  ultimate  truth  about  things  which  science  seeks,  is  not  to 
be  found  in  a  study  of  physical  phenomena.  Matter  will  never 
reveal  to  us  its  ultimate  essence,  for  it  has  none.  Science  has 
come  face  to  face  with  energies  which  it  cannot  fathom ;  these 
energies  are  in  the  divine  Mind.  The  source  of  all  things, 
which  science  seeks  to  discover,  is  not  to  be  found  in  material 
form,  but  in  Spirit. 

"The  scientist  may  conquer  peak  after  peak  of  scientific 
knowledge,  he  may  see  regions  in  front  of  him  which  ever 
beckon  him  onward,"  as  J.  J.  Thompson  has  eloquently  said 
in  his  Presidential  address  before  the  British  Association. 
"We  do  not  see  our  goal,  we  do  not  see  the  horizon.  In  the 
distance  tower  still  higher  peaks  which  will  yield  to  those  who 
ascend  them  still  wider  prospects  and  deepen  the  feeling  whose 
truth  is  emphasized  by  every  advance  of  science,  that  'Great 
are  the  works  of  the  Lord."^ 

"Proofs  of  intelligent  and  benevolent  design  lie  all  around 
us,"  says  Lord  Kelvin,  the  distinguished  English  scientist, 
whose  name  will  be  honored,  not  merely  for  his  grand  additions 
to  science,  but  also   for  his  noble  and  constant  faith  in  the 


^Scientific  American  Supplement,  September  4th,  1909. 

Hi 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

eternal  verities.  That  which  exists  must  have  had  an  origin. 
They  are  as  they  are  either  by  chance,  necessity  or  design.  To 
say  that  they  came  into  being  by  chance,  is  to  make  one's  self 
ridiculous.  Chance  is  out  of  the  question,  unthinkable.  This 
universe  of  ours  is  adapted  not  simply  in  its  quantity,  but  its 
distribution,  to  the  wants  of  the  race.  How  came  it  so?  Lord 
Kelvin  answers  firmly  and  unwaveringly :  "Because  all  living 
beings  depend  on  one  ever-acting  Creator  and  Ruler." 

The  discoveries  and  deductions  of  Natural  Science  afford 
no  rational  or  satisfactory  theory  of  the  creation  of  the  world 
of  visibility.  Science,  after  centuries  of  investigation  as  to  the 
ultimate  realities,  is  finally  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  the 
noble  utterances  of  the  Scriptures  concerning  the  existence  of 
God  and  the  origin  of  all  created  things  as  the  only  adequate 
basis  upon  which  to  build  its  twentieth  century  explanation  of 
the  universe. 


12 


III. 

KINSHIP  WITH  THE  INFINITE 

HE  wise  men  of  the  East  watched  the  appearing  of  a 
Star  and  sought  for  signs  and  portents  in  the  heavens, 
foreshadowing  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires  and  the  fate  of 
men.  But  the  age  when  omens,  the  revelations  of  the  horo- 
scope, the  Delphic  oracle,  the  flight  of  birds,  and  the  course  of 
planets  swayed  mankind  is  past.  Science  exploring  the  realms 
of  space  finds  sun  and  stars  and  worlds  revolving  in  their 
orbits,  held  to  their  appointed  courses  by  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion. Land  and  sea,  heaven  and  earth,  sun,  moon  and  stars  all 
lie  before  us  like  an  open  book  the  meaning  of  which  science 
is  beginning  to  spell  out.  Studying  the  air,  the  earth,  the  sun, 
the  whole  universe  is  found  to  be  instinct  with  life.  Sunlight 
entering  the  planet  reappears  in  the  flowering  fields  and 
autumn's  golden  fruitage.  The  processes  are  examined  but 
the  genesis  of  life  remains  unknown. 

Now  a  new  age  has  come.  Science  affirms  that  there  can 
be  no  explanation  of  the  universe  save  in  terms  of  Infinite 
Life  or  Mind.  Following  the  light  of  science  as  well  as  reason, 
man  is  coming  .to  a  realization  of  his  identity  and  power. 
Again  he  has  discovered  his  kinship  with  the  Infinite.  He  is 
no  longer  an  exile  from  his  kingdom;  his  spirit  returns  to 
his  own. 

Science  to-day  is  throwing  intense  light  upon  the  idea  of 
individual  man  and  of  our  relation  to  the  Infinite  God.  It 
affirms  that  in  his  deeper  self  man  possesses  the  qualities  which 
relate  him  vitally  and  essentially  to  the  Infinite. Mind  of  the 
Universe.     The  Edinburgh  Review  points  out  the  fact  that 

13 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

eternal  verities.  That  which  exists  must  have  had  an  origin. 
They  are  as  they  are  either  by  chance,  necessity  or  design.  To 
say  that  they  came  into  being  by  chance,  is  to  make  one's  self 
ridiculous.  Chance  is  out  of  the  question,  unthinkable.  This 
universe  of  ours  is  adapted  not  simply  in  its  quantity,  but  its 
distribution,  to  the  wants  of  the  race.  How  came  it  so  ?  Lord 
Kelvin  answers  firmly  and  unwaveringly:  "Because  all  living 
beings  depend  on  one  ever-acting  Creator  and  Ruler." 

The  discoveries  and  deductions  of  Natural  Science  afford 
no  rational  or  satisfactory  theory  of  the  creation  of  the  world 
of  visibility.  Science,  after  centuries  of  investigation  as  to  the 
ultimate  realities,  is  finally  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  the 
noble  utterances  of  the  Scriptures  concerning  the  existence  of 
God  and  the  origin  of  all  created  things  as  the  only  adequate 
basis  upon  which  to  build  its  twentieth  century  explanation  of 
the  universe. 


12 


III. 

KINSHIP  WITH  THE  INFINITE 

HE  wise  men  of  the  East  watched  the  appearing  of  a 
Star  and  sought  for  signs  and  portents  in  the  heavens, 
foreshadowing  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires  and  the  fate  of 
men.  But  the  age  when  omens,  the  revelations  of  the  horo- 
scope, the  Delphic  oracle,  the  flight  of  birds,  and  the  course  of 
planets  swayed  mankind  is  past.  Science  exploring  the  realms 
of  space  finds  sun  and  stars  and  worlds  revolving  in  their 
orbits,  held  to  their  appointed  courses  by  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion. Land  and  sea,  heaven  and  earth,  sun,  moon  and  stars  all 
lie  before  us  like  an  open  book  the  meaning  of  which  science 
is  beginning  to  spell  out.  Studying  the  air,  the  earth,  the  sun, 
the  whole  universe  is  found  to  be  instinct  with  life.  Sunlight 
entering  the  planet  reappears  in  the  flowering  fields  and 
autumn's  golden  fruitage.  The  processes  are  examined  but 
the  genesis  of  life  remains  unknown. 

Now  a  new  age  has  come.  Science  affirms  that  there  can 
be  no  explanation  of  the  universe  save  in  terms  of  Infinite 
Life  or  Mind.  Following  the  light  of  science  as  well  as  reason, 
man  is  coming  .to  a  realization  of  his  identity  and  power. 
Again  he  has  discovered  his  kinship  with  the  Infinite.  He  is 
no  longer  an  exile  from  his  kingdom;  his  spirit  returns  to 
his  own. 

Science  to-day  is  throwing  intense  light  upon  the  idea  of 
individual  man  and  of  our  relation  to  the  Infinite  God.  It 
affirms  that  in  his  deeper  self  man  possesses  the  qualities  which 
relate  him  vitally  and  essentially  to  the  Infinite. Mind  of  the 
Universe.     The  Edinburgh  Review  points  out  the  fact  that 

13 


IV. 

THE   CENTRAL    FIGURE   IN    HISTORY 

THE  central  character  in  the  dramatis  personse  of  this  book 
is  a  young  Jewish  carpenter.  His  figure  stands  forth  in 
vivid  distinctness  as  the  greatest  creative  religious  personality 
of  either  ancient  or  modern  history;  nevertheless,  He  lived 
within  His  own  little  world  the  homely,  natural,  everyday  life 
of  our  kind.  There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  during  His 
youth  He  even  went  beyond  the  narrow  confines  of  His  home 
at  Nazareth,  "a  little  hill-nested  Galilean  village  with  the  low 
peaks  notching  the  sky  around  it,"  nor  is  there  any  evidence 
that  His  boyhood  was  any  diflferent  from  that  of  the  youths 
and  comrades  among  whom  He  lived.  He  was  emphatically 
part  and  parcel  of  the  common  people.  In  the  Gospel  narrative 
of  His  life,  St.  Luke  gives  this  meagre  yet  illuminating  infor- 
mation, "The  child  grew  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  filled  with 

wisdom:  and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon  Him And 

Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  in  stature,  and  in  favor  with 
God  and  man,"  thus  clearly  indicating  that  His  life  was  exem- 
plary in  every  respect;  that  He  was  well-behaved  and  well- 
liked  in  the  circle  in  which  He  moved. 

He  seldom  visited  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  the  seat  of 
Jewish  learning  and  worship,  nor  did  He  avail  Himself  of  the 
social  and  educational  advantages  which  that  center  of  learning 
afforded.  He  had  no  acquaintance  or  intimacy  with  the  doc- 
tors of  the  law,  and  had  no  place  in  any  of  the  higher  and  more 
influential  circles  of  Jewish  life,  either  worldly,  educational, 
religious  or  political.  But  this  Galilean  youth  was  no  idle 
dreamer.     While  He  worked  with  his  hands  at  the  carpenter's 

16 


THE   CENTRAL   FIGURE   IN   HISTORY 

trade  He  was  keenly  observant  of  the  life  about  Him.  In  His 
school  of  training — the  only  school  which  He  ever  attended — 
there  were  just  two  text-books,  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
"descended  from  the  mysterious  antiquity  of  His  race,"  and 
the  book  of  nature.  These  He  studied  faithfully.  Both  books 
to  Him  were  open.  Their  lessons  He  marked  and  pondered 
deeply.  He  penetrated  beneath  the  material  surface  of  things 
and  found  their  spiritual  cause,  as  Pharisees  and  Scribes  and 
learned  doctors  of  the  law  had  utterly  failed  to  do.  Later  in 
His  life  He  interpreted  and  expounded  the  spiritual  meaning 
of  the  Scriptures  "as  one  having  authority  and  not  as  the 
scribes." 

We  can  well  believe  that  again  and  again,  "He  climbed 
alone  to  the  top  of  the  little  hill  to  the  west,  leaving  behind  the 
cisterns,  the  olive  orchards,  the  tombs  in  the  cliffs  and  the 
oleander  thickets,  mounting  upwards  to  the  broken  summits 
above  Nazareth,  to  look  away  into  the  interminable  distances 
and  to  muse  over  the  mystery  of  it  all.  There  at  His  feet  lay 
Galilea,  all  fragrant  and  bright  in  the  rich  eastern  air.  Far  in 
the  north  was  the  ghostly  peak  of  Hermon.  Towards  the  east 
was  the  light-hung  cone  of  Tabor,  and  a  thin  gleam  of  the  blue 
Tiberius.  Farther  towards  the  south  shot  up  the  dim  peaks  of 
Gilboa  and  the  more  shadowy  peaks  of  Gilead  that  are  beyond 
the  tumultuous  flood  of  the  Jordan.  On  the  west  the  gazing 
boy  could  discern  in  violet  light  the  laurelled  ridges  of  Carmel 
that  plunge  down  to  the  sea,  far  peaks  where  Elijah  had  par- 
leyed with  the  prophets  of  Baal  and  cried  the  prayer  that  called 
down  fire.  And  there,  farther  towards  the  north.  He  caught 
the  faint  sparkle  of  the  Mediterranean,  whose  shores  were  to 
echo  His  name  down  to  all  ages  of  the  world.  So,  on  the  little 
hill  behind  Nazareth,  the  boy  stood  wondering  over  the  mystery 
of  the  world's  beauty  that  is  forever  ebbing  and  flowing  around 
the  mystery  of  our  own  existence.^ 

^Edward  Markham,  "The  Poetry  of  Jesus." 

17 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

In  the  valleys,  the  plains  and  the  hillsides  among  which  He 
worked  and  lived,  this  young  carpenter  saw  a  meaning  undis- 
cerned  by  the  common  observer.  He  loved  nature  in  all  her 
moods  and  saw  in  all  her  varied  forms  the  handiwork  of  an 
Infinite  and  beneficent  Creator.  In  the  lilies  of  the  field  "which 
toil  not"  He  beheld  a  beauty  of  apparel  rivalling  that  of  Solo- 
mon. The  fowls  of  the  air  "which  sow  not,  neither  gather  into 
barns,"  proclaimed  God's  providential  care.  This  young  car- 
penter, this  humble  Nazarene,  talked  life,  abundant  and  eternal. 
He  declared  that  mankind  should  know  truth  and  that  truth 
should  make  them  free.  He  taught  fa;ith,  righteousness, 
health,  happiness.  Life  and  immortality  He  brought  to  light; 
sin,  sickness  and  death  He  proved  powerless.  These  were  the 
fruits,  the  natural  effects  of  His  understanding  of  divine  law 
and  spiritual  causation.  He  saw  in  the  world  around  Him  the 
deeper  spiritual  meaning  of  life,  and  understood  as  none  had 
ever  done  before  man's  true  heritage  as  a  son  of  God,  created 
in  God's  image  and  likeness.  He  presented  to  mankind  the 
purest  ideals  of  Hfe,  so  high  that  humanity  in  a  lapse  of  nine- 
teen centuries  is  still  toiling  up  the  steeps  to  reach  their  moun- 
tain heights.  He  taught  perfection,  even  as  that  of  the  infinite 
Father,  a  perfection  so  complete  that  man  still  lives  in  unbelief 
of  its  realization. 

His  message,  a  strange  and  new  one,  stirred  and  thrilled 
the  thought  of  a  worn  and  weary  world.  His  ambitions  vaster 
than  had  ever  dawned  on  the  imagination  of  any  warrior  or 
statesman  of  antiquity,  included  in  their  scope  the  setting  up  on 
earth  of  a  society  or  kingdom  that  should  be  without  the  in- 
signia of  earthly  pomp  or  glory,  or  kingly  rule;  a  kingdom 
which  should  not  be  material  and  ephemeral,  but  spiritual  and 
eternal. 

V  The  commission  which  He  accepted,  more  important  than 
any  that  ever  bore  a  royal  seal,  pledged  Him  to  a  task  greater 
than  any  ever  given  to  other  human  beings.    The  mission  which 

18 


THE   CENTRAL   FIGURE   IN   HISTORY 

He  undertook  to  carry  out  he  made  the  most  self-sacrificing, 
the  freest  from  thought  of  worldly  gain  or  vestige  of  self-seek- 
ing in  all  that  He  said  or  did,  of  any  ever  undertaken  by  mind 
and  heart  and  hand  of  man ;  yet  of  all  persons  who  have  made 
history,  none  has  ever  lived  so  brief  a  public  career.  He 
brought  a  gospel  of  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  which  should  be 
to  all  people ;  He  came  "to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  pro- 
claim liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to 
them  that  are  bound;  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord,  and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God ;  to  comfort  all  that 
mourn ;  to  appoint  unto  them  that  mourn  in  Zion,  to  give  unto 
them  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  the  gar- 
ment of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness;  that  they  might  be 
called  trees  of  righteousness,  the  planting  of  the  Lord,  that  He 
might  be  glorified." 

Close  now  the  pages  of  history  and  tell  me  what  man  ever 
essayed  a  task  more  lofty,  more  broadly  humanitarian,  more 
unselfish,  more  universal  in  its  outreachings,  more  laden  with 
benefits  and  blessings  to  mankind.  What  man  more  worthy 
than  He  to  receive  the  world's  welcome  ?  But  what  manner  of 
greeting  did  He  receive?  Was  it  one  of  glad  acclaim?  Did 
the  world  give  Him  a  palace  for  His  home?  Did  it  crown  His 
infancy  with  royal  honors  and  give  Him  rank  and  station 
among  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  when  He  attained  to  man- 
hood? Nay,  at  His  birth  it  offered  Him  the  manger  of  an- 
other man's  stable  in  which  to  be  born ;  before  He  was  out  of 
His  swaddling  clothes  a  wicked  king  sought  His  death  by 
slaying  all  the  children  under  two  years  of  age  in  the  place 
where  He  was  born.  It  drove  Him  into  exile,  gave  Him  the 
wilderness  and  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  in  which  to  pray  and 
agonize;  the  cross  of  the  enemy  on  which  to  die  and  a  tomb 
belonging  to  one  who  feared  to  show  Him  open  friendship  in 
which  to  lie. 

With  unequalled  power  to  possess  the  wealth,  the  position, 

19 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  fame  and  the  royal  rule  which  the  world  craves  most,  He 
chose  a  life  of  obscurity  in  a  despised  Galilean  village ;  He  cast 
His  lot  among  the  common  people  where  even  His  own  home 
judged  Him  to  be  beside  Himself  in  the  claims  which  He  made 
as  to  His  mission  in  life.  Spotlessly  pure  in  body  and  mind, 
living  a  life  of  self-denial,  ever  intent  upon  His  ministry  to  the 
needs  of  others,  fulfilling  in  every  deed  the  Messianic  pro- 
phecies of  seer  and  prophet  of  olden  times,  H^e  nevertheless 
was  accounted  by  the  covetous,  debauched  religionists  and  tra- 
ditionalists of  His  day  a  Sabbath  breaker,  a  friend  of  publicans 
and  sinners,  a  wine  bibber  and  a  glutton. 

The  Jewish  hierarchy  considered  Him  profane;  the  self- 
seeking  priesthood  charged  Him  with  blasphemy,  and  declared 
Him  to  be  "possessed  of  a  devil"  and  in  league  with  "Beelzebub 
the  Prince  of  the  Devils."  He  who  came  to  fulfil  the  law  and 
the  prophets  was  condemned  by  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  as 
a  religious  alien,  standing  outside  the  community,  actuated  by 
a  desire  to  destroy  the  very  foundations  of  religion  and  society 
itself. 

He  knew  what  it  is  to  be  poor  and  friendless  and  alone :  to 
have  no  place  where  to  lay  His  head ;  to  be  "despised  and  re- 
jected of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief." 
It  was  His  tragic  fate  to  be  misrepresented,  misunderstood, 
hated,  persecuted,  betrayed,  to  be  forsaken  by  His  followers  in 
the  crucial  moment  of  His  life,  and  to  suffer  the  death  of  a 
criminal  on  an  ahen  cross.  He  was  born  poor,  lived  poor, 
died  poor,  yet  He  bequeathed  the  richest  legacy  ever  given  to 
humanity — His  words  and  His  works. 

He  never  sat  at  the  feet  of  any  Zadoc  or  Ezra  or  Gamaliel ; 
was  never  trained  by  Rabbi  or  Scribe  or  Priest.  No  school  of 
the  prophets  acknowledged  Him,  no  academic  grove  had  in- 
structed Him.  His  immediate  following  was  a  little  company 
of  the  very  common  people.  And  yet,  with  sublime  disregard 
for  all  the  traditions  of  His  race  and  age,  in  the  calm  and 

20 


THE   CENTRAL   FIGURE   IN   HISTORY 

undisturbed  consciousness  that  He  was  uttering  absolute  and 
eternal  truth,  He  made  these  immortal  declarations:  *'I  am 
the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life;  no  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  me" ;  and  "this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might 
know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou 
hast  sent." 

In  an  age  of  hypocrisy,  self-indulgence,  greed  and  covet- 
ousness  which  flourished  in  high  places,  He  lived  a  life  of 
absolute  spotlessness,  unselfishness  and  unwearied  devotion  to 
the  task  which  he  had  undertaken.  He  exercised  His  power 
always  and  only  for  man.  No  offer  of  the  world's  wealth  or 
pomp  and  power  could  tempt  Him  to  betray  the  cause  which 
He  had  espoused,  or  turn  Him  from  His  supreme  purpose  to 
fulfil  at  whatever  cost  His  appointed  work.  Meek  and  lowly  in 
heart.  He  nevertheless  met  the  world's  hostility  with  a  front 
which  could  not  be  broken.  No  threat  of  governor  or  eccles- 
iastical dignitary  could  weaken  His  dauntless  courage.  No 
fear  of  the  wicked  king  who  had  slain  His  forerunner,  John 
the  Baptist,  could  lead  Him  to  abate  one  jot  of  his  claims  to 
the  Messiahship. 

He  who  betrayed  no  consciousness  of  sin  and  boldly  offered 
His  adversaries  the  challenge,  "which  of  you  convinceth  Me 
of  sin  ?"  was  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  He  who  spared 
not  His  denunciations  of  the  sins  of  those  in  high  places,  who 
judged  sin  as  no  other  had  ever  judged  it,  sought  the  society 
of  the  sinful,  moved  by  a  love  that  was  a  sweet  compulsion  to 
save. 

He  proclaimed  the  kingdom  of  God,  a  kingdom  of  right- 
eousness and  truth,  yet  found  as  His  most  inveterate  foes  the 
very  ones  who  claimed  to  be  its  constituted  guardians.  The 
priests  resisted  Him  in  the  temple  which  they  had  prostituted 
to  their  own  sordid  uses,  yet  quailed  before  the  moral  majesty 
of  this  moneyless  peasant  when  He  drove  the  money  changers 
from  their  tables.     In  an  age  when  tradition  and  ceremonial 

21 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

had  driven  faith  out  of  religion,  He  taught  His  followers  its 
marvelous  might.  He  who  came  to  fulfil  the  law  had  to  meet 
the  contradictions  and  the  controversies  of  the  Pharisees, 
whose  traditions  and  ceremonials  had  been  thrown  about  that 
law.  He  who  set  up  a  spiritual  reality  of  which  the  temple 
was  but  the  symbol,  had  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  the 
priests  who  ministered  in  that  temple.  Over  Jerusalem,  stand- 
ing in  history  as  a  colossal  persecutor,  inheritor  of  the  guilt  of 
past  martyrdoms,  He,  the  Leader  of  martyrs,  utters  His  sad 
lament : 

"O  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets,  and  stonest 
them  which  are  sent  unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gath- 
ered thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !" 

The  three  closing  years  of  His  life  were  fraught  with  the 
most  momentous  consequences.  Of  these  years  the  first  was 
spent  in  comparative  obscurity  in  the  beginning  of  His  ministry 
among  men;  the  second  in  the  popularity  of  a  personal  and 
enthusiastic  following.  In  the  succeeding  and  last  year  of  His 
life  He  encountered  the  active  and  virulent  opposition  of  the 
Jewish  hierarchy.  They  were  the  most  strenuous,  the  most 
fruitful,  the  most  tragic  years  ever  lived  by  any  human  being. 
The  enmity  which  Jesus  encountered  could  create  but  one  feel- 
ing in  His  mind,  that  ultimately  this  enmity  would  fall  upon 
His  person,  and  as  He  could  not  surrender  His  mission  He 
must  be  prepared  to  surrender  His  life.  Nevertheless  He 
abated  not  one  iota  of  His  high  claims  as  the  Great  Teacher,  the 
Messiah  sent  from  God.  Meeting  with  undaunted  courage  the 
hostility  and  persecution  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  the  closing 
year  of  His  life  reached  its  swift  climax  in  a  shameful  death 
upon  a  malefactor's  cross. 


22 


THE   CENTRAL   FIGURE  IN  HISTORY 

11. — ^Jesus  the  Christ 

Out  of  death  and  seemingly  utter  defeat  this  Nazarene  car- 
penter achieved  the  most  wonderful  triumph;  the  cross  upon 
which  He  was  crucified,  the  symbol  of  shame  and  agony  and 
death,  he  made  the  symbol  of  Life,  Truth  and  Love,  and  the 
central  emblem  of  history.  He  who  died  upon  it  became  the 
unique  religious  personality  of  the  race;  His  Hfe  the  most  fruit- 
ful, His  work  the  most  marvelous. 

In  an  age  when  Caesar  had  carried  conquest  far  with  his 
trained  and  confident  veterans ;  at  a  time  when  Rome  ruled  the 
world  with  the  sword,  when  carnage  and  crime  and  greed  and 
licentiousness  and  the  brutalities  of  man  had  spread  over  the 
face  of  the  earth,  this  Nazarene  carpenter  undertook  to  estab- 
lish a  reign  of  peace  on  earth,  of  good  will  to  men ;  to  set  up 
a  spiritual  kingdom  in  which  righteousness,  truth  and  love 
should  abide. 

The  great  factor  of  religion  in  the  eyes  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  was  the  Temple,  with  its  priesthood  and  its  sensuous 
forms  of  worship.  Jesus  taught  that  God  is  Spirit  and  should 
be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in  truth;  that  God's  temple  and 
worship  are  spiritual  and  not  confined  to  any  place.  He  who 
stands  in  history  as  the  realization  of  the  perfect  man  and 
in  whom  religion  was  made  a  living  reality,  deliberately  ignored 
those  customs  and  elements  men  were  wont  to  think  essential 
to  religion. 

In  an  age  pre-eminent  for  its  priesthood  and  priestly  cere- 
monial, He  made  none  of  His  followers  a  priest  and  created  no 
order  of  priesthood  to  which  any  man  could  belong.  At  a  time 
when  positive  legislation  had  emphasized  the  differences  be- 
tween those  within  and  those  without  their  societies,  when  re- 
ligion had  created  caste,  sanctioned  and  magnified  the  pride  of 
blood,  emphasized  the  distinction  of  race,  justified  the  inhuman- 
ity of  man  to  man,  Jesus  taught  that  through  His  teachings  all 

23 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

men  are  to  be  made  kin.  Institutional  Judaism  laid  its  stress 
upon  the  acts  and  articles  of  worship  rather  than  upon  faith; 
Jesus  made  faith  the  subjective  pivot  of  religion,  separated  it 
from  uniform  and  invariable  custom,  and  boldly  made  it  inde- 
pendent of  usage  and  institution  and  brought  the  individual 
man  and  the  absolute  God  face  to  face. 

He  emancipated  religion  from  place  and  made  it  co-exten- 
sive and  sufficient  for  man's  needs  and  nature.  His  is  the  only 
religion  which  has  achieved  this  emancipation,  the  only  re- 
ligion which  has  made  it  possible  for  men  to  approach  God 
anywhere.  He  taught  that  union  with  God  needs  but  faith. 
The  man  who  believes  in  the  Son  of  God  is  identified  with 
Him  and  is  lifted  by  Him  into  the  spiritual  mood  in  which  man 
knows  and  feels  his  kinship  with  the  Infinite. 

In  an  age  when  men  believed  that  God's  mind  needed  to  be 
changed  by  gifts  and  sacrifices,  when  the  just  anger  of  a  venge- 
ful Deity  could  be  met  by  the  sacrifice  of  an  innocent  victim, 
Jesus  taught  that  God  is  by  nature  merciful,  immutably 
gracious,  but  that  man  is  the  being  who  needs  to  be  changed. 
Levitical  legislation  had  instituted  the  priesthood,  organized 
and  regulated  its  ministry,  described  and  sanctioned  its  sac- 
rifices; Jesus  superseded  the  multitudinous  forms  of  temple 
worship  and  the  priests  who  stood  and  mediated  between  God 
and  man,  by  the  substitution  of  Himself  as  the  sole  institution 
of  faith  and  worship,  a  substitution  which  was  not  merely  a 
reform  but  a  revolution. 

The  temple  which  held  for  the  imagination  of  the  Jew  an 
irresistible  appeal  as  the  place  where  the  Divine  Presence  was 
to  be  found,  He  replaced  with  the  idea  that  man  is  now  and 
here  to  find  God's  presence  in  the  ever-present  Christ  who 
will  ever  reveal  the  true  nature  of  God.  He  drew  aside  the 
veil  from  the  face  of  God  and  there  emerged  a  Being  whom  it 
is  possible  to  love,  to  serve,  to  worship,  to  live  and  work  for. 
He,  the  Christ,  is  to  live  in  the  heart  of  man  as  God  manifest 

24 


THE   CENTRAL  FIGURE   IN  HISTORY 

in  the  flesh,  that  all  men  may  see  His  glor>'  and  share  His 
grace.  The  temple  at  Jerusalem  was  a  type,  but  not  a  final  or 
abiding  reality.  Jesus  Christ  set  up  the  spiritual  temple  wherein 
no  buyer  or  seller  can  traffic,  nor  money  changers  set  their 
tables,  nor  proud  and  greedy  priest  bid  the  broken  in  spirit 
depart  unpitied. 

With  marvelous  disdain  for  all  positive  laws,  whether  reg- 
ulative, ceremonial,  administrative  or  coercive,  He  founded  His 
society  simply  on  discipleship.  His  religion  became  an  evolu- 
tion of  belief,  not  a  product  of  authoritative  legislation,  so  that 
where  men  worship  in  Him  all  the  partitions  which  the  ancient 
law  and  ordinances  of  religion  built  up  to  divide  race  from 
race  fall  down  and  show  man  face  to  face  with  man,  one  family 
before  one  God. 

Christ  Jesus  epitomized  and  externalized  the  mystery  of 
being.  In  Him  God  becomes  associated  with  a  person  who  is 
the  symbol  of  humanity.  He  stands  as  the  ideal  of  mankind 
and  through  Him  we  may  think  of  God,  the  universal  Father, 
in  the  terms  of  ideal  humanity,  of  humanity  in  the  terms  of 
ideal  sonship. 

Christ  Jesus  as  the  Logos,  the  Son,  revolutionized  the  con- 
ceptions of  God  and  changed  an  abstract  and  purely  metaphy- 
sical idea  into  a  concrete  and  intensely  ethical  person.  He  be- 
comes the  visible  manifestation  of  God,  incarnated  in  a  single 
individual.  The  light  which  illumines,  the  life  which  quickens, 
the  love  that  saves,  becomes  incarnate  in  Him.  The  Logos,  the 
Word  which  became  flesh,  is,  as  it  were,  the  tabernacle  of  a 
universal  religion.  In  Jesus  man  saw  the  face  of  God  as  far  as 
it  had  been  revealed  in  the  flesh.  In  Jesus  God  came  to  men 
and  men  met  God,  and  the  glory  which  they  beheld  was  God's 
visible  presence.  There  has  thus  come  within  the  experience 
of  man  the  most  transcendant  of  all  mysteries;  the  Mind  of 
God  is  translated  into  human  speech,  the  life  of  God  assumes, 
human  shape. 

25 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

III. — Christ  Jesus  the  Supreme  Personality 

Judged  by  any  of  the  standards  of  all  times,  the  character 
of  Christ  Jesus  is  still  flawless,  still  ideally  perfect,  still  occupies 
the  loftiest  place  possible  to  human  attainment.  Jesus  stands 
out  in  such  transcendent  light  and  splendor  of  achievement  as 
the  great  example  for  all  humanity,  that  every  so-called  hero 
of  history  pales  into  insignificance  in  comparison.  To-day 
throughout  the  civilized  world  He  is  regarded  with  Supreme 
respect  and  even  with  divine  veneration.  The  wise  men  of  the 
West  as  well  as  the  wise  men  of  the  East  watch  with  the  shep- 
herds in  Palestine  to  do  Him  homage.  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
Orthodox  and  Liberal,  Anglican  and  Quaker,  agree  in  looking 
upon  Him  as  the  supreme  embodiment  in  human  history  of  all 
in  man  most  worthy  of  imitation,  and  of  all  in  the  Invisible 
Ruler  of  the  universe  that  is  most  worthy  of  reverence. 

The  great,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  Christians,  as 
Lyman  Abbot  has  well  said,  agree  in  regarding  Christ  Jesus  as 
the  personification  in  a  human  life  of  a  God  who  transcends  all 
our  conceptions  of  personality.  But  those  to  whom  He  is  not 
a  divinity  vie  with  their  orthodox  contemporaries  in  the  honor 
which  they  pay  to  His  name.  Whatever  view  we  may  take  of 
this  great  personality,  the  fact  remains  that  to-day  the  life  and 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  are  most  potential  factors  in  determining 
human  conduct.  Jesus'  life  has  been  studied  by  the  greatest 
writers  of  our  day,  and  yet  no  other  subject  is  so  fresh  and 
inspiring.  Scientists,  theologians,  writers  and  thinkers  of  all 
classes  have  found  in  the  story  of  His  life-work  the  most 
commanding  and  entrancing  themes  that  can  possibly  be  pre- 
sented for  human  consideration.  John  Stuart  Mill  holds  Him 
to  be  the  supreme  standard  of  life  and  character  known  to  men. 
Ernest  Renan  bows  before  Him  as  a  true  Son  of  God.  Tolstoi 
reverences  His  name.  Dr.  Koehler,  the  leading  Jewish  theo- 
logian of  the  American  continent,  finds  in  Jesus  the  living  man, 

26 


THE   CENTRAL   FIGURE   IN   HISTORY 

a  paragon  of  piety,  humility  and  self -surrender,  who  presents 
to  the  Jew  of  to-day  "an  inspiring  ideal  of  matchless  beauty," 
and  expresses  the  belief  that  the  long-hoped-for  reconciliation 
between  Judaism  and  Christianity  will  come  when  once  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  shall  have  become  the  axiom  of  human 
conduct 

"His  character  transcends  all  racial  limitations  and  divi- 
sions. He  is  the  only  Oriental  that  the  Occident  has  admired 
with  an  admiration  that  has  become  worship.  His  is  the  only 
name  the  West  has  carried  into  the  East,  which  the  East  has 
received  and  praised  and  loved  with  sincerity  and  without  qual- 
ifications."^ 

And  yet  this  man  who  set  aside  the  prejudices  of  His  age, 
nation  and  sect,  who  set  aside  the  law  with  its  forms,  sacrifices, 
temple,  and  priesthood,  lived  a  life  which  gave  free  range  to 
the  spirit  of  God  in  His  heart.  In  a  career,  which  reached  its 
tragic  climax  on  the  cross.  He  so  lived  as  to  unite  in  Himself 
the  sublimest  precepts  and  divinest  practices.  The  life  of  this 
carpenter  of  Nazareth  has  been  bared  to  the  search-lights  of 
the  ages,  and  no  age  has  been  so  intent  upon  His  personality, 
life  and  work  as  the  present  one.  His  doctrines  have  been 
analyzed  by  the  clearest  intellects.  His  sayings  and  His  dis- 
courses have  inspired  more  comment  and  discussion  than  all  the 
literary  product  of  the  centuries.  In  the  profoundest  theolog- 
ical treatises  of  modern  times  the  subtlest  powers  of  the  in- 
tellect have  been  employed  in  the  effort  to  understand  and  ex- 
plain His  unique  personality.  The  criticisms  of  friend  and  foe 
have  been  alike  exhausted  upon  His  teachings. 

Christ  Jesus  stands  to-day  as  the  pivotal  fact  in  all  history. 
He  is  the  center  of  all  theology.  His  mission  has  become  the 
light  and  joy  of  the  world ;  His  words  stand  as  the  highest 
spoken  on  earth  concerning  the  relations  between  man  and  man 
and  between  man  and  God. 


^Dr.   A.   M.   Fairbairn  in   "The   Philosophy  of  Religion," 
page  369. 

27 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

"Whatever  the  future  may  have  in  store  for  us,"  says  The- 
odore Parker,  ''Jesus  Christ  is  the  supreme  man  in  the  history 
of  the  past.  The  rehgion  which  He  and  His  followers  taught 
came  to  the  world  when  the  nations  stood  in  darkness,  not 
daring  to  go  forward.  The  piety  and  morality  which  Jesus 
taught  and  lived  came  to  the  world  as  a  beacon  of  light  to 
chaos,  as  a  strain  of  sweet  music — the  fulfilment  of  the  pro- 
phecy of  holy  hearts,  human  religion,  human  morality,  above 
all  things  revealing  the  greatness  of  man." 

The  personal  name  Jesus  is  the  one  we  love  most  to  use, 
and  the  qualities  the  world  loves  to  emphasize  are  the  Master's 
human  qualities,  sympathy,  tenderness,  simplicity,  courtesy, 
friendliness,  love.  The  peculiar  charm  and  value  of  the  synop- 
tic Gospels  is  the  portrait  given  of  Jesus.  These  Gospels  show 
Him  as  simple,  rational  and  real,  a  person  who  never  ceased  to 
be  Himself  and  who  expresses  Himself  in  history  according  to 
the  nature  He  has  and  the  truth  within  Him.  The  one  glimpse 
we  have  of  His  boyhood  shows  Him  as  a  boy  His  parents  could 
lose  and  seek  sorrowing,  and  in  His  manhood  and  public  min- 
istry He  is  seen  to  share  our  common  human  weakness.  He 
grows  weary,  is  hungry  and  thirsty,  suffers,  is  in  need  of  sym- 
pathy, seeks  God  in  prayer.  The  attributes  and  the  fate  of 
universal  man  were  His  as  they  are  ours. 

Jesus  Christ  stands  as  the  realized  ideal  of  humanity,  the 
bearer  of  grace  and  truth.  As  Lyman  Abbot,  the  eminent  re- 
ligious writer,  has  forcibly  observed:  "No  rationalistic  belief 
in  a  hypothetical  Creator  to  account  for  the  phenomena  of  cre- 
ation, or  mystic's  faith  in  an  inward  experience  of  God,  inspir- 
ing but  undefined  and  uninterrupted,  can  ever  take  the  place 
of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  realized  ideal  of  humanity,  who  became 
the  inspired  manifestation  of  the  Eternal,  making  known  to  us 
a  human,  historical,  personified  God,  the  Father  of  our  spirit 
and  the  companion  of  our  lives."  The  eminent  scientist.  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  says:     "If  it  be  in  human  nature  that  we  can 

28 


THE   CENTRAL   FIGURE   IN  HISTORY 

gradually  grow  to  some  dim  conception  of  the  majesty  of  the 
Eternal,  it  is  the  life  and  teachings  of  that  greatest  Prophet, 
that  we  shall  do  well  to  study  diligently  when  we  wish  to  disen- 
tangle and  display  some  of  the  secrets  of  the  spiritual  Uni- 
versal." 

Human  history  illustrates  the  truth  of  St.  Paul's  words 
concerning  the  mutability  of  all  human  plans.  The  fashion  of 
this  world  passes,  but  the  transitoriness  only  emphasizes  the 
more  the  immutability,  the  eternal  permanence  of  the  Gospel 
which  Jesus  proclaimed.  The  Christ  is  the  one  abiding  force 
''yesterday,  to-day  and  forever,"  in  every  change  in  the  econ- 
omy of  human  life.  The  power  and  the  success  of  Christian- 
ity has  not  been  and  is  not  to  be  found  in  mere  numbers  or  in 
wealth  or  social  standing,  or  in  the  worldly  advantages  which 
Christianity  may  possess,  but  in  the  power  of  Christ  and  the 
Gospel  which  Jesus  proclaimed. 

IV. — A  New  Spring  Time 

Turn  back  the  panorama  of  history  till  we  reach  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era,  and  there  is  disclosed  to  our  view 
a  little  band  of  ignorant  fishermen,  one-time  followers  of  a 
lowly  Nazarene,  gathered  upon  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
just  a  handful  of  Jewish  peasantry,  whose  high  hopes  of  the 
deliverance  of  Israel  from  Roman  rule  and  the  establishment 
of  the  Messianic  kingdom,  whose  speedy  coming  their  leader 
had  proclaimed  and  taught  them  to  declare  at  hand,  had  been 
cruelly  shattered. 

But  this  is  the  daybreak  of  a  new  springtime  for  humanity ! 
He  of  the  pierced  hands  and  the  wounded  side,  whom  the 
grave  could  not  hold,  appears  to  their  astonished  gaze.  He 
makes  them  understand,  as  they  never  could  have  understood 
before,  that  His  resurrection  is  not  merely  a  physical  miracle, 
but  a  spiritual  experience,  and  that  His  presence  henceforth  is 

29 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

to  be  universal  and  spiritual.  He  renews  His  commission  to 
His  disciples  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  to  proclaim 
the  nearness  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  to  heal  the  sick,  to 
cleanse  the  lepers,  to  cast  out  devils  and  to  raise  the  dead,  even 
as  He  had  done,  and  then  finally  declares :  '*Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

That  little  band  of  no  longer  unbelieving  followers  becomes 
the  nucleus  of  the  greatest  religious  movement  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  Its  rise  begins  the  Christian  era  and  a  new  calendar 
of  time.  The  religion  which  Christ  Jesus  established  and  which 
we  know  as  the  Christian  religion  or  the  Christianity  of  the 
New  Testament,  begins  with  but  a  few  simple  forms  of  out- 
ward organization.  It  is  not  instituted  as  a  religion  of  cere- 
monials, but  the  expression  of  an  inner  life  lived  by  faith  in  its 
founder's  teachings;  it  is  a  religion  which  brings  new  hope 
and  energy  and  healing  to  humanity ;  a  religion  built  not  upon 
creed,  or  dogma,  or  ritual,  not  upon  ceremonial  or  sacrifice, 
not  upon  faith  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  upon  the  knowledge 
that  Jesus  manifested  the  divinity  of  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  Living  God. 

From  feeble  beginnings  in  primitive  simplicity  and  spiritual 
power,  the  church  has  grown  into  a  powerful  religious  denom- 
ination which  holds  sway  over  vast  areas  of  country  and  com- 
prises within  its  folds  a  membership  and  following  of  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  people,  nearly  one-third  of  the  total  pop- 
ulation of  the  world.  It  has  seen  kingdoms  rise  and  fall;  it 
has  seen  monarchies  and  empires  give  way  to  republics,  and 
every  dynasty  fall  but  its  own.  It  has  encountered  and  suc- 
cessfully withstood  materialistic  science  whose  doctrine  of 
evolution,  conservation  of  energy  and  atomic  theory,  and  whose 
scientific  discoveries,  cosmic  and  biological,  have  astonished 
men  and  threatened  to  overthrow  the  very  foundations  of  all 
religious  belief. 

In  the  lapse  of  centuries  it  has  grown  to  be  a  great  sacer- 

30 


THE   CENTRAL  FIGURE   IN  HISTORY 

dotal,  ecclesiastical  organization  or  corporation  with  an  im- 
posing ritual  and  a  great  body  of  creeds,  dogmas  and  traditions. 
It  is  now  composed  of  three  great  divisions  or  rival  groups  with 
divers  sects  or  subdivisions  within  each  group,  and  separated  by 
well-nigh  irreconcilable  differences  of  doctrine,  ritual  and 
polity.  Whether  these  differences  will  become  of  such  serious 
character  as  to  result  in  the  final  overthrow  of  what  we  now 
know  as  organized  Christianity,  and  the  embodiment  of  the 
ideal  Christianity  of  Christ  Jesus  in  some  other  form  more  cor- 
respondent with  its  early  simplicity,  unity  and  successful  min- 
istry, are  questions  which  will  be  considered  at  length  in  subse- 
quent chapters. 


31 


V. 

THEOLOGICAL   FORMULAS 

FOR  ages  creed  builders,  theologians  and  ecumenical  coun- 
cils have  been  busy  formulating  theological  and  material- 
istic dogmas  concerning  Deity,  and  trying  to  answer  the  all- 
absorbing  and  all-important  question,  "What  are  the  nature 
and  the  attributes  of  God?"  Many  of  the  theologians  whose 
utterances  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  scholastic  theology  of 
orthodox  Christianity,  carry  an  air  of  suggestive  omniscience. 
They  assume  to  know  the  Deity  and  all  about  His  plans  and 
purposes  and  mysterious  dispensations.  They  appear  to  feel 
it  their  bounden  duty  to  apologize  for  God,  whose  ways  they 
try  to  indicate  to  man.  They  reason  *'in  endless  mazes  lost 
of  Providence  fore-knowledge,  will  and  fate." 

"We  open  a  book  of  theology,"  says  Dr.  Snowden,  "written 
over  forty  years  ago,  and  we  find  the  Trinity  dissected  down 
to  minute  details,  and  all  figured  out  as  though  it  were  a  prob- 
lem in  algebra;  as  though  all  the  mystery  of  divinity  could  be 
expressed  in  words  with  great  positiveness  of  assurance  and 
with  arithmetical  precision  of  specification." 

Out  of  the  meanings  and  uses  of  isolated  verses  in  Scrip- 
ture, the  old  theology  has  drawn  the  most  tremendous  infer- 
ences. The  God  of  the  Bible  becomes  a  god  of  dogma  and  of 
creed,  a  man-projected  being  with  all  the  characteristics  of  a 
rra'jl  and  vindictive  despot.  He  is  pictured  as  a  being  liablf 
to  wrath,  repentance  and  human  changeableness ;  as  a  god 
who  is  moved  by  anger,  jealousy  and  cruelty  toward  his 
defenceless  children ;  who  sent  pestilence  until  he  was  propiti- 
ated by  the  smell  of  burnt  oflferings  and  whose  anger  could  be 
appeased  only  by  the  sacrifice  of  an  innocent  victim. 

The  traditional  notion  is  that  God  is  a  magnified  being,  who 

33 


THEOLOGICAL   FORMULAS 

sits  upon  a  great  white  throne;  a  being,  who  is  outside  and 
apart  from  the  universe;  and  yet,  when  he  chooses,  reaches 
down  and  in  some  miraculous  way,  arbitrarily  or  capriciously 
makes  changes  in  his  machinery  of  the  world,  or  manifests  his 
power  in  startling  and  spectacular  ways  to  the  children  of  men. 

The  theologians'  God  is  a  god  who  moves  in  a  mysterious 
way ;  who  houses  one  in  poverty,  or  clothes  him  in  want ;  who 
rocks  the  earth  in  anger,  lashes  the  waves  in  fury,  and  enters 
the  home  in  the  stillness  of  night  to  rob  it  of  beloved  ones,  a 
being  to  whom  prayers  may  be  addressed,  begging  that  suffer- 
ings may  pass,  or  that  capacity  may  be  granted  to  bear  with 
proper  patience  the  trials  and  sufferings  ordained  by  his  over- 
ruling providence.  Theologians  say  he  made  some  parts  of 
his  creation  bad,  very  bad  indeed,  especially  the  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  human  race,  so  much  so  that  He  must  some  day 
do  his  work  over  again,  because  it  was  not  done  right  in  the 
first  place.  And  yet  the  Bible  depicts  God  as  a  being  of  love 
and  almighty  power,  who  made  all  things  by  the  might  of  His 
word,  and  who  saw  all  that  He  had  made,  and  pronounced  it 
"very  good." 

Scholastic  theology  teaches  belief  in  an  omnipotent  God 
who  is  infinite  in  all  His  attributes  of  wisdom  and  love  and 
truth,  the  creator  of  all  things,  but  forthwith  acknowledges  the 
existence  of  an  evil  principle,  or  power,  opposed  to  God;  an 
evil  being  who  is  constantly  thwarting  God's  purposes  and 
plans;  and  a  universe  wherein  all  are  subject  to  a  supposed 
law  of  disintegration,  disease  and  death. 

Although  it  presents  a  conception  of  God  as  omnipresent 
Spirit,  infinitely  wise,  powerful  and  good  and  who,  as  St.  James 
teaches,  "tempteth  no  man,"  it  yet  makes  God  the  author  and 
the  supporter  of  a  system  of  which  evil  is  a  legitimate  outcome. 
An  evil  being,  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  is  declared  to  be  the 
cause  of  an  act  of  disobedience  on  the  part  of  our  first  parents, 
committed  4,000  years  ago  in  the  Garden  of  Eden;  and  from 

33 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

this  one  act  all  the  sin  and  misery  of  human  life  have  followed 
in  consequence! 

St.  John  declared  that  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested  to 
destroy  the  works  of  the  Devil.  The  great  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles taught  that  Christ  came  to  destroy  the  power  of  death. 
The  Bible  everywhere  represents  evil  as  an  offence  to  God  who 
cannot  look  upon  it  with  the  least  degree  of  allowance.  Never- 
theless, rather  than  surrender  to  pet  dogma,  theologians  stick 
to  His  Satanic  Majesty  as  an  integral  part  of  God's  universe, 
with  the  implications  of  a  reign  of  evil  and  consequent  human 
misery. 

God  is  described  as  the  God  of  the  living,  yet  it  is  taught 
that  He  instituted  death  as  a  necessary  preliminary  to  life  and 
the  gateway  to  heaven.  Despite  St.  Paul's  contention  that 
death  is  an  enemy  that  must  be  overcome  and  that  Christ  Jesus 
"brought  life  and  immortality  to  light"  the  clergy  still  main- 
tain its  "utility,"  its  manifestations  of  natural  law,  its  timely 
friendliness,  hence  its  legitimate  place  in  the  ordering  of  life 
as  an  agency  of  God.  Death  is  represented  as  the  portal  to 
immortality.    Heaven  lies  beyond  this  vale  of  tears. 

Scholastic  theology  upholds  the  doctrine  of  hell  and  eternal 
punishment  for  the  greater  portion  of  the  human  race,  save 
only  the  elect  few,  predestined  to  glory  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world.  According  to  the  conception  of  the  older  theologies, 
the  principal  effort  of  the  human  race  was  to  be  directed  to 
the  task  of  appeasing  an  angry  God,  and  thus,  by  sacrifices  and 
ceremonies,  prepare  for  a  reception  in  heaven  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne.  In  our  pulpits  of  the  present  day  the  fear  of 
the  wrath  of  God  is  still  urged  as  an  incentive  to  fly  in  terror 
for  refuge  from  the  pit,  despite  the  fact  that  punishment  never 
made  any  man  truly  honest. 

Disease  and  evil,  suffering  and  death,  as  realities,  are  in- 
sisted upon.  They  are  accepted  as  an  inalienable  adjunct  of 
man's  existence  and  are  assumed  to  be  within  the  compass  of 

34 


THEOLOGICAL    FORMULAS 

God's  providence  and  as  subserving  some  useful  purpose.  Evil 
is  considered  a  factor  of  good,  its  reality  accepted  as  essential 
to  a  well-developed  sense  of  the  existence  of  God.  Accepting 
physical  sense  testimony  as  to  its  reality,  the  theologian  argues 
for  its  educational  value  and  necessity. 

The  conditions  which  involve  sin  and  suffering  are  regarded 
as  beneficent  and  of  divine  appointment.  "It  is  implied  in  the 
Bible,"  says  one  of  our  present  day  clerics,  "that  sickness,  pain 
and  death  will  last  as  long  as  the  human  race  consists  of  spirits 
dwelling  in  mortal  bodies ;  that  sickness  and  pain  may  be  miti- 
gated by  natural  science  and  the  consolations  of  philosophy 
and  that  religion  will  enable  sufferers  to  bear  the  inevitable." 

"The  dispensations  of  providence,"  dark  and  inscrutable, 
are  to  be  endured  with  resignation  or  with  silent  despondency, 
with  open  rebellion  or  stoical  indifference,  as  the  character  of 
the  sufferer  may  be.  Religious  teachers  have  sought  to  per- 
suade our  tortured  hearts  to  say  in  the  fearful  ruin,  "God's  will 
be  done,"  and  therefore,  "I  turn  to  God  to  comfort  me." 

The  horrors  of  sickness,  suffering  and  death  which  attend 
this  mortal  life,  and  which  rest  upon  the  good,  no  less  than 
on  the  bad,  on  the  innocent  no  less  than  on  the  guilty,  are  made 
to  appear  as  a  providential  provision.  Any  interference  with 
the  administration  of  the  divine  law  of  retributive  justice,  we 
are  told,  insults  the  divine  providence,  by  denying  the  purpose 
of  this  mortal  life. 

Dreading  a  revengeful  Deity,  haunted  by  the  fear  of  Him 
who  stands  for  all-power;  without  hope  of  escape  from  this 
all-seeing  eye  and  seeking  refuge  in  all  manner  of  attempts 
to  placate  God's  awful  anger — such  is  the  pitiable  condition 
induced  by  an  acceptance  of  the  theological  doctrines  and 
dogmas  of  the  orthodox  expounders  of  the  Bible.  Poor  suf- 
fering humanity  is  taught  that  men  exist  as  victims ;  like  peb- 
bles "on  a  capricious  shore  of  destiny" ;  that  they  are  doomed 
to  be  sick  and  die  at  any  moment,  and  that  they  have  no  ade- 

35 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

quate  power  to  resist;  that  the  human  race  cannot  be  saved 
on  earth,  or  while  aHve,  that  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  the 
heavy  hearts,  heavy  burdens,  the  sorrows  and  miseries  of  life 
— the  only  way  out,  "is  to  die  out." 

As  Jesus  instituted  it,  Christianity,  of  all  religions  on  earth, 
is  most  calculated  to  dispel  fear  and  impart  a  joyous  outlook 
upon  life,  yet  have  not  theologians  made  it  a  pessimistic  philos- 
ophy; have  they  not  made  it  the  apotheosis  of  fear;  have  they 
not  attempted  to  terrorize  humanity  with  dark  pictures  and 
awful  penalties?  Still  the  orthodox  theologian  continues  to 
sound  the  old  note  of  self -depreciation,  lowly  humility,  spiritual 
pauperism,  and  mental  beggary,  while  millions  have  been 
doomed  to  despair,  or  consigned  to  perdition.  Through  their 
teachings  has  not  fear  of  the  future  terrorized  the  race? 
Through  nineteen  centuries,  since  the  dawn  of  the  Christian 
era,  have  not  their  teachings  drowned  that  song  the  angels 
sang,  "Glory  to  God  in  the  Highest,  and  on  earth,  peace,  good 
will  to  men"?  Have  they  not  suppressed  the  faith  that  Jesus 
taught  His  followers,  the  knowledge  of  an  infinite,  loving  All- 
Father,  and  an  unquestioning  trust  in  God's  providential  care? 

The  occasional  recurrence  of  the  terms,  "Devil,"  "Satan," 
"Hell,"  "eternal  punishment,"  "damnation,"  etc.,  in  the  Bible 
may  be  cited  apparently  to  sustain  the  hideous  doctrines  of 
perdition  and  the  damnation  of  souls  as  taught  by  orthodoxy, 
but  the  accepted  sense  of  such  terms  is  not  sustained  by  correct 
translation  of  the  Bible.  The  Bible  writers,  however,  never 
knew  or  dreamed  of  a  place  of  torment,  commonly  called 
Hell,  nor  of  a  tormentor  called  the  Devil.  The  Bible  does  not 
teach  that  punishment  for  sin  is  relentless,  arbitrary  and  ever- 
lasting, but  that  it  is  intrinsic  and  remedial,  without  reference 
to  duration;  while  on  the  other  hand  the  New  Testament 
teaches  the  final  and  complete  restoration  of  all  things  in 
Christ. 

In  the  King  James  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  the 

36 


THEOLOGICAL    FORMULAS 

word  "Devil"  does  not  occur.  The  English  word  Hell  is  from 
the  Saxon  verb  Helan,  to  cover  or  conceal,  and  intrinsically 
contains  no  idea  of  a  place  of  torment.  As  has  been  observed, 
"It  never  did  smell  of  fire  and  brimstone  in  its  Saxon  home." 

In  the  New  Testament  there  is  no  hell  in  a  sense  of  a  future 
place  of  everlasting  punishment.  The  word  Eternity,  com- 
monly translated  in  our  New  Testaments  as  eternal,  everlast- 
ing, means  outside  of  time,  without  any  reference  to  duration. 
We  get  an  altogether  wrong  notion  when  we  regard  eternity  as 
an  enormous  and  inconceivable  accumulation  of  time.  Eternity 
is  in  the  realm  of  Spirit;  and  eternal  punishment  means  that 
which  is  not  arbitrary  or  external,  but  intrinsic  or  esoteric, 
and  self-retributive.  Eternity  is  the  word  commonly  used  in 
our  New  Testament  to  render  the  Greek  Aion,  and  the  adjec- 
tive Aionios;  our  translators  have  rendered  eternal,  everlast- 
ing, etc.,  seemingly  at  random,  although  these  words  are  not  at 
all  kindred  in  their  esoteric  meaning.  Says  J.  Freeman  Qarke : 
*'You  might  as  well  attempt  to  produce  thought  or  love  by 
adding  up  millions  of  miles  of  distance,  as  by  adding  millions 
of  years  of  time,  to  get  an  idea  of  eternity.  Eternal  life,  in  the 
language  of  Scripture,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  future  or  the 
past."  When  Jesus  declared,  "He  that  believeth  in  me  hath 
eternal  Hfe,"  and  "This  is  life  eternal,  to  know  thee,  the  only 
true  God,"  one  may  readily  perceive  that  these  statements  have 
no  allusion  to  duration.  "Eternal  punishment  is  that  preserva- 
tive, remedial  retroaction  of  conduct  and  thought  which  attends 
man  through  his  spiritual  nature,  and  the  idea  of  duration  is 
not  connected  with  it.  Just  as  soon  as  you  make  it  mean  dura- 
tion, it  becomes  temporal  and  hence  must  have  an  end.  Eternal 
punishment  being  in  the  soul,  consciousness  is  necessarily  self- 
corrective,  and  therefore  inevitably  leads  to  repentance  and  for 
this  reason  cannot  be  everlasting.* 

^A.  P.  Barton,  in  "The  Bible  and  Future  Punishment," 
page  33. 

J7 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

The  word  translated  soul  in  Matt.  10:28,  is  pseiicJia  and 
has  no  reference  to  the  Spirit.  It  corresponds  with  the  Hebrew 
Nephesh,  mere  existence  or  animation,  so  that  this  Scripture 
makes  no  reference  to  the  Spirit  of  man  at  all,  but  only  to 
man's  physical  life.  "In  all  the  700  times  when  Nephesh  occurs 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  105  times  when  pseucha  occurs 
in  the  New  Testament,"  says  Wilson,  "not  once  is  the  word 
immortal,  or  the  word  immortality,  or  deathless,  or  never- 
dying,  found  in  connection  as  qualifying  the  terms." 

The  words  damnation  and  damned  do  not  occur  in  the  Old 
Testament  at  all.  The  Greek  word  aionion,  translated  Eternal, 
never  did  mean  everlasting  and  never  had  any  reference  what- 
ever to  duration,  and  the  original  New  Testament  is  also  free 
from  this  pagan  doctrine  of  everlasting  damnation  of  the  souls 
of  men. 

Archdeacon  Farrer,  in  a  sermon  delivered  on  the  subject 
of  Bible  translation,  made  this  emphatic  declaration :  "I  say 
unhesitatingly,  I  say,  claiming  the  fullest  right  to  speak  with 
the  fullest  authority  of  knowledge ;  I  say,  with  the  calmest  and 
most  unflinching  sense  of  responsibility — I  am  standing  here 
in  the  sight  of  God  and  my  Saviour,  and  it  may  be  of  the 
angels,  and  the  spirits  of  the  dead — that  not  one  of  these  words, 
'Damnation,'  'Hell'  and  'Everlasting,'  ought  to  stand  any 
longer  in  our  English  Bible,  for  in  our  present  acceptation  of 
them  they  are  simply  mistranslations." 

But  the  bonds  of  dogma  and  tradition,  of  blind  authority 
and  blind  faith  are  being  rent  in  twain  in  this  day  and  age. 
"The  times  are  changed;    old  systems  fall. 
And  new  life  o'er  their  ruins  dawns." 

The  Bible's  esoteric  teachings,  in  the  light  of  a  better  un- 
derstanding, glows  with  the  faith  of  ultimate  triumph  and 
restoration.  The  book  is  clear  of  the  conception  of  such  a 
thing  as  the  theological  devil  or  of  an  orthodox  hell.  It  sings 
with  the  music  of  Love's  Evangel :    "On  earth,  peace,  good  will 

to  men." 

38 


VI. 

THE    CHRISTIANITY   OF   THE    NEW   TESTAMENT 

"One  of  the  leading  facts  in  the  philosophy  of  history," 
says  the  German  theologian,  Rev.  Dr.  A.  Rucker,  "is  to  be 
learned  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  of  all  the  factors  that  make 
peoples,  races,  individuals,  what  they  are,  the  most  potent  is 
and  has  been  religion."  If  you  ask,  "What  is  religion?"  I 
answer,  it  is  that  divine  reality  which  kindles  into  life  and 
exalts  mankind,  and  knitting  them  together  in  a  bond  of 
brotherhood,  directs  this  life  towards  a  supreme  and  comm  m 
good ;  it  is  living  in  love  and  holy  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God.  It  is  "a  daily  walk  with  the  eternal,"  as  a  great  thinker 
has  said.  It  is  a  conscious  relation  between  man  and  God  and 
the  expression  of  that  relation  in  human  conduct.  If  you  ask 
me  what  is  its  work,  I  answer:  the  creation  of  a  humanity 
that  shall  in  all  its  persons,  relations  and  institutions  express 
and  realize  that  harmony  with  the  will  of  God. 

"True  religion  is  no  piece  of  artifice;  it  is  not  a  boiling  up 
of  our  imaginative  powers,  nor  is  it  the  glowing  heats  of 
passion;  though  these  are  too  often  mistaken  for  it,  when  in 
our  jugglings  in  Religion  we  cast  a  mist  before  our  own  eyes. 
But  it  is  a  new  nature  informing  the  souls  of  men ;  it  is  a  God- 
like frame  of  spirit  discovering  itself  most  of  all  in  serene  and 
clear  minds,  in  deep  humility,  meekness,  self  denial,  universal 
love  of  God,  and  all  true  goodness,  without  partiality,  and  with- 
out hypocrisy ;  whereby  we  are  taught  to  know  God  and  know- 
ing Him  to  love  Him  and  conform  ourselves  as  much  as  may 
be  to  that  perfection  which  shines  forth  in  Him."^ 

\Iohn  Smith,  the  Platonist. 

39 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

"Pure  religion  and  undefiled  is  the  chief  glory  of  human 
existence,  it  is  of  infinite  worth  and  beauty;  it  shines  in  the 
intellect  with  a  steady  light ;  it  beats  in  the  heart  with  a  pulse 
of  fire ;  it  utters  itself  in  the  sacrament  of  loving  service ;  it 
builds  the  character  into  permanent  conquest  over  evil  and 
pain  and  fear."^ 

And  the  essence  of  all  true  religious  experience  in  all  ages 
has  consisted  in  the  consciousness  of  unity  with  God  and  the 
determinative  idea  in  every  religious  system  is  the  idea  which 
the  believer  holds  as  to  the  nature  and  attributes  of  God.  A 
religious  man  is  fashioned  by  his  conception  of  God;  in  the 
highest  sense  he  is  an  image  or  miniature  of  his  Maker,  a 
form  realizing  in  time  the  thought  of  the  Eternal.  It  is  upon 
his  idea  of  God  that  his  idea  of  himself  really  depends.  If  his 
conception  of  God  is  narrow  and  unworthy  so  must  be  his 
conception  of  himself.  "As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is 
he."  If  his  thought  of  God  is  lofty  and  noble  his  thoughts  of 
himself  must  inevitably  become  lofty  and  noble. 

The  spirit  of  religion  is  ever  uplifting;  it  alone  can  give 
man  that  courage  which  defies  all  obstacles  in  his  pathway  and 
enables  him  not  only  to  believe  but  know  that  there  is  a  divine 
meaning  to  his  individual  life  and  the  life  and  efiPorts  of  the 
race.  Let  a  man  once  take  into  his  deepest  thought  and  life, 
this  vital  realization  of  God,  and,  as  J.  Herman  Randall  has 
fittingly  said,  "Let  him  feel  that  he  is  not  weak  and  helpless; 
that  he  is  not  a  poor  and  pitiable  object,  buflfeted  by  circum- 
stances and  change;  that  he  is  never  totally  and  absolutely 
depraved ;  that  he  is  an  actual  part  of  God,  that  his  life  is  one 
with  the  Father's  life  and  that  it  only  rests  with  Him  to  enter 
more  deeply  and  more  continuously  into  the  realization  of  this 
oneness  between  Himself  and  the  Infinite  God — then  His  life 
takes  on  a  new  meaning  and  dignity,  a  new  grandeur  and 
power,  such  as  it  has  never  before  possessed." 

"The  men  who  live  as  for  eternity,"  says  Dr.  A.  M.  Fair- 

*Dr.  Creorge  A.  Gordon,  Atlantic  Mont  lily  for  March. 

40 


THE    CHRISTIANITY    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT 

bairn,  "believing  that  the  problem  of  their  being  is  in  harmony 
with  the  will  of  a  Divine,  Beneficent  and  All-powerful  Creator, 
live  under  the  noblest  and  humanest  inspiration  possible  to 
men.  And  this  is  the  inspiration  given  by  religion ;  to  have  it 
is  to  breathe  the  thoughtful  truth  that  comes  of  a  living  faith." 

Jesus  Christ  stands  as  the  highest  goal  toward  which  the 
life  of  humanity  has  been  tending  from  the  beginning.  His 
earthly  career  was  an  exemplification  of  perfect  oneness  with 
God;  in  Him  religion  became  a  living,  articulate  reality.  In 
Him  as  in  no  other  person  who  ever  trod  this  globe  religion 
became  a  perfect  relation  to  God,  expressed  in  word  and  deed, 
creative  of  a  perfect  humanity  made  through  knowledge  of  and 
obedience  to  God, 

H. 

Out  of  the  multitudes  of  religions  which  have  had  their 
rise  in  the  world,  three  owe  their  existence  to  a  person,  viz. : 
Buddhism,  Mohammedanism  and  Christianity.  Each  has 
sought  to  extend  its  conquests  beyond  the  limits  of  its  own 
nationality,  or  in  other  words,  to  become  missionary. 

Buddhism  exists  without  a  personal  God.  It  is  said  that 
unless  its  founder  had  been  man  we  should  never  have  had 
his  system  or  his  influence;  unless  he  had  been  conceived  as 
more  than  man,  we  should  never  have  had  his  religion;  in 
ether  words,  his  church  lives  by  faith  in  him  and  what  he 
stands  for. 

"There  is  no  figure  so  familiar  in  the  East  as  his.  He  sits 
everywhere  in  monastery,  pagoda  and  sacred  place,  cross- 
legged,  meditative,  impassive,  resigned,  the  ideal  of  quenched 
desire,  without  line  of  care  or  thought  to  disturb  the  ineflfable 
calm  or  mar  the  sweetness  of  his  unsmiling  yet  gracious  face ; 
a  silent  deity,  who  bids  the  innumerable  millions  that  worship 
him  become  as  blessed  by  being  as  placid  as  he.  Buddhism  has 
been  described  as  the  apotheosis  of  an  ethical  personality, 
which  could  not  be  justified  by  the  reason,  but  was  neverthe- 
less a  vivid  reality  to  faith. "^ 

^"The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  pp.  270-276. 

41 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

Buddha's  philosophy  of  Hfe  was  highly  pessimistic.  "Can 
there  be  any  benevolence,"  he  asks,  **in  continuing  an  existence 
which  must  be  either  in  idea  or  experience  miserable?  The 
existence  which  possssses  such  eternal  possibilities  of  sorrow, 
nay,  such  dreadful  temporal  certainties,  cannot  be  good;  its 
very  essence  is  evil;  instability  marks  it;  birth  introduces  to  a 
world  of  suffering;  death  is  departure  to  a  world  of  greater 
suffering,  if  not  in  actual  experience  at  least  in  possible  event. 
And  where  the  possibilities  of  evil  are  in  number  and  in  dura- 
tion so  nearly  infinite,  can  existence  be  other  than  an  agony  to 
him  who  contemplates  it  with  a  serious  and  sober  eye?" 

To  this  he  answers :  "We  must  retire  from  the  world  and 
cultivate  the  suppression  of  the  very  desire  to  live,  the  sur- 
render of  the  capability  to  act,  the  quenching  of  the  thirst  that 
by  goading  us  into  action  binds  by  merit  or  demerit  to  the 
wheel  of  life.  When  we  have  ceased  to  desire  we  shall  cease 
to  will,  cease  to  act,  to  acquire,  or  to  lose  merit.  The  law  that 
maintains  being  and  enforces  change  will  then  cease  to  oper- 
ate, and  release  from  the  ever-revolving  wheel ;  we  shall  attain 
Nirvana  and  return  no  more." 

Buddha's  society  was  two-fold :  an  inner  circle,  a  church 
or  order,  and  an  outer  circle,  the  adherents.  Those  who  com- 
posed the  inner  circle  were  men  and  women  who  renounced 
everything  and  became  mendicants,  monks  and  nuns,  persons 
who  had  the  vocation  of  a  holy  life.  In  a  system  which  seeks 
to  end  the  existence  which  is  misery,  celibacy  and  chastity'were 
fundamental  principles.  "The  adherents  were  the  devout, 
those  who  believed  in  the  Buddha,  but  were  not  strong  enough 
to  make  the  great  renunciation  and  break  the  fetters  that  bound 
them  to  the  sensuous  world.  The  cardinal  idea  of  the  system," 
as  Dr.  Fairbairn  remarks,  "is  an  individualism  which  is  best 
when  realized  in  the  social  medium  that  promises  to  make  an 
end  of  the  individual.  This  individualism  governs  it  through- 
out.   Its  one  authority  is  an  individual  beside  whom  no  second 

42 


THE   CHRISTIANITY    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT 

stands.  Every  individual  is  a  self-sufficing  unit,  charged  with 
the  care  and  the  control  of  his  own  destiny,  who  has  the  right 
of  his  own  free  will  to  make  the  last  surrender,  but  on  whom 
no  other  has  any  right  to  lay  a  violent  hand. 

*'The  happiest  being  is  he  on  whom  the  love  of  the  only  life 
he  has  power  over — his  own — has  died ;  the  next  in  happiness 
is  he  who  so  loves  all  being  that  he  will  inflict  suffering  on 
none.  The  first  has  become  a  saint  and  attained  Nirvana ;  the 
second  has  entered  upon  the  path  and  will  in  due  season  reach 
the  goal." 

Mohammed  divides  with  Buddha  and  the  Brahman,  the  re- 
ligious sovereignty  of  the  Oriental  mind.  Islamism,  whether 
regarded  as  a  religion  or  as  a  state,  or  both,  is  the  creation  of 
positive  law,  the  work  of  a  personal  will,  we  know  as  Moham- 
med. But  this  sovereignty  is  not  presented  to  the  eye  in  the 
form  of  any  image ;  its  imperious  symbol  is  a  book,  the  Koran, 
which  Mohammed's  followers  accept  as  a  revelation  of  the 
mind  of  God  and  the  promulgation  of  the  law  which  man  is 
bound  under  the  most  awful  and  inexorable  sanctions  to  obey. 
"The  worship  which  the  Koran  enjoins  is  one  of  stern  yet 
majestic  simplicity;  it  concerns  God  only  and  there  is  but  one 
God  who  has  made  Mohammed  his  final  and  sovereign  prophet 
and  declared  through  him  that  all  idols  are  idleness  and 
vanity." 

The  Koran  is  indeed  a  marvelous  book,  which  speaks  with 
tremendous  force  to  men  who  can  and  do  believe  it.  "Its  God 
is  a  consuming  fire  in  a  sense  quite  unknown  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. There  the  future  has  but  a  feeble  or  shadowy  existence ; 
the  scene  where  Jehovah  reigns  is  more  this  world  than  the 
next.  But  in  the  Koran  God  is  eternal,  man  is  immortal,  and 
death  is  no  escape  from  His  hands.  In  no  religion  is  the  other 
world  so  real  as  in  Islam;  Heaven  is  described  in  terms  most 
alluring  to  the  oriental  imagination,  hell  in  words  that  scorch 
and  blacken.    And  God  holds  man  and  his  destiny  in  His  inex- 

43 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

orable  hands,  awards  heaven  to  the  believer,  hell  to  the  infidel, 
no  one  being  able  to  escape  His  terrible  decree. 

"Above  all,  authenticating  all,  stood  the  prophet.  The  God 
to  be  believed  was  the  God  he  revealed;  to  deny  Mohammed 
was  to  disbelieve  God.  His  authority  was  ultimate,  for 
through  him  God  had  freely  and  finally  spoken  and  only 
through  him  could  God  be  really  known.  The  primary  belief, 
then,  in  Islam  is  not  the  unity  of  God,  but  the  apostolate  of 
Mohammed. 

"Islam  is  the  one  absolute  book  religion  of  the  world,  and 
may  be  most  properly  defined  as  the  Apotheosis  of  the  Word. 
The  Koran  is  the  mind  of  Mohammed  immortalized  for  his 
people,  speaking  to  them,  being  questioned  by  them,  making 
their  laws,  governing  their  lives.  His  God  is  theirs,  conceived 
in  his  terms  worshipped  in  his  manner  obeyed  in  his  spirit. 
And  this  means  that  an  Arab's  consciousness  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury A.  D.  has  determined  the  Deity  and  governs  the  faith  of 
Islam.  The  connection  between  the  man  and  the  religion  can 
thus  be  dissolved  only  by  the  death  of  both."^ 

III. 

Of  these  three  founded  religions,  the  Christian  religion  has 
the  most  universal  religious  idea,  or  in  other  words,  is  the 
most  capable  of  being  possessed  by  any  people.  Nevertheless, 
the  Jewish  tendency  was  to  restrict  God  to  a  particular  place, 
a  definite  temple.  His  ministry  to  a  specific  priesthood.  His 
worship  to  a  special  form,  and  His  servants  to  a  peculiar 
people.  The  emancipation  of  the  Jewish  religion  and  its  em- 
bodiment in  the  Christian  religion,  a  religion  at  once  the  most 
missionary  in  its  outreaching  and  the  most  universal  in  its 
underlying  idea,  was  the  greatest  piece  of  constructive  religious 
work  the  world  has  ever  known.  It  was  accomplished  by  a 
Jewish  peasant,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whose  career  began  a  new 

^"The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  page  285. 

44 


THE    CHRISTIANITY    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT 

calendar  of  time,  whose  life  and  teaching  constitute  the  pure 
type  of  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament  which  must  ever 
remain  the  ideal  religion  of  all  time,  the  purest  expression  or 
exemplification  of  oneness  with  the  Father  and  of  brotherhood 
among  men. 

The  religion  which  Jesus  Christ  established  is  something 
more  than  mere  attendance  upon  church  services  or  the  ca- 
pacity to  enjoy  the  vocalization  of  a  well-trained  choir,  or  the 
eloquent  prayers  and  oratorical  flights  of  an  impassioned 
preacher.  It  is  something  more  than  initiation  into  church 
membership  by  the  rite  of  baptism  and  confession  of  faith. 
It  is  more  than  ritualistic  worship  and  adherence  to  a  creed, 
the  support  of  the  clergy  or  participation  in  the  various  activ- 
ities of  the  church.  The  Christianity  embodied  in  the  life  of 
Christ  Jesus  is  more  than  perfunctory  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath day,  or  of  the  communion  service,  or  the  offering  of  long 
prayers  in  public  places.  One  may  do  all  this  and  yet  live  a 
wholly  selfish  and  sensual  life.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
has  its  source  and  inspiration  in  an  acquaintance  with  God.  It 
maintains  its  purity  and  its  power  by  virtue  of  the  indwelling 
of  God. 

A  religious  life  after  the  pattern  which  Jesus  instituted  is 
more  than  mere  instruction  in  ethical  standards  of  conduct  or 
exalted  ideals  of  life;  it  means  a  conscious  relationship  to  God 
and  the  impartation  of  divine  strength  by  means  of  which 
those  ideals  may  be  realized  in  a  character  modeled  after  the 
Christ  standard.  To  be  a  Christian  means  something  more 
than  a  formal  assent  or  belief  in  a  God  of  dogma  or  doctrine 
or  the  acceptance  of  man-made  conceptions  of  the  Infinite  or 
of  the  traditional  notions  of  scholastic  theology.  These  no 
longer  satisfy  the  earnest  man  or  woman  who  would  realize 
the  consciousness  of  oneness  with  an  infinite,  all-loving  Father, 
and  find  his  reward  in  the  larger  understanding  and  demon- 
stration of  the  presence  of  God. 

45 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

St.  Paul  accentuates  the  idea  of  the  Christian  community, 
set  forth  by  St.  Peter,  as  a  people  for  God's  own  possession. 
In  his  Epistle  to  Titus  he  says  "our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  gave 
Himself  for  us  that  He  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and 
purify  unto  Himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works." 
St.  Paul  represents  the  individual  Christian  as  the  temple  of 
God.  **Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  a  temple  of  God,  and  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you?"  His  conception  of  the  Chris- 
tian community  is  that  of  a  society  or  brotherhood  possessed 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  which  inhabits  each  one  and  organizes  and 
gives  growth  and  harmony  to  the  whole.  He  conceives  of  the 
church  as  holy  and  without  blemish;  as  a  body  of  believers, 
speaking  the  truth  in  Christ,  **in  whom  all  the  building  fitly 
framed  together  groweth  into  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord.  .  .  . 
for  an  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit."  And  this  growth 
is  represented  as  being  carried  on  until  it  finds  its  fruition  in 
unity  of  faith,  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  growth  in 
spiritual  manhood,  until  we  attain  "unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ."  St.  Peter  describes  Jesus' 
followers  as  "lively  stones,"  built  up  into  a  "spiritual  house"; 
as  a  "holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  accept- 
able to  God  by  Jesus  Christ." 

Jesus  united  Jew  and  Gentile  into  one  household  or  fam- 
ily of  God.  There  is  indeed  a  sense  in  which  God  is  the  uni- 
versal Father  of  all  His  creation,  but  Jesus  taught  a  father- 
hood of  adoption,  of  grace;  a  fatherhood,  a  sonship  and  a 
brotherhood  which  belong  exclusively  to  the  Christian  com- 
munity. John  conceives  of  the  relationship  as  all  summed  up 
in  love.  Irenaeus,  one  of  the  early  fathers  of  the  Christian 
church,  refers  to  the  pre-eminent  gift  of  love,  which  is  more 
precious  than  knowledge,  more  glorious  than  prophecy  and 
which  excels  all  other  gifts  and  makes  this  love  characteristic 
of  the  church.  Clement,  writing  as  the  head  of  the  Roman 
Church  to  the  Christian  Corinth,  uses  no  other  authority  than 

46 


THE    CHRISTIAN ITY^-'^G^P^HE    NEW    TESTAMENT 


that  of  love,  which  is  the  ethical  principle  of  the  organic  unity 
of  the  church. 

"Let  him  that  hath  love  in  Christ  fulfil  the  commandment 
of  Christ.  Who  can  declare  the  bond  of  the  love  of  God? 
Who  is  sufficient  to  tell  the  majesty  of  its  beauty?  The  height 
whereunto  love  exalteth  is  unspeakable.  Love  joineth  us  unto 
God.  Love  hath  no  divisions.  Love  maketh  no  seditions. 
Love  doeth  all  things  in  concord.  In  love  all  the  elect  of  God 
are  made  perfect;  without  love  nothing  is  well-pleasing  to 
God;  in  love  the  Master  took  us  unto  Himself." 

In  this  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth  which  Jesus  came  to 
establish  all  men  were  to  be  brothers  and  all  sons  of  God ;  their 
worship  of  Him  was  to  be  a  service  of  love  expressed  in  obe- 
dience and  realized  within  the  community  of  saints.  Instead 
of  outside  rules  an  internal  law  was  to  reign ;  men  were  to  live 
in  the  spirit  and  speak  in  the  truth,  governed  by  a  love  which 
would  not  allow  anyone  to  exult  in  another's  evil  or  rejoice  in 
another's  pain,  but  which  moved  all  to  a  universal  beneficence. 

"It  was  a  new  idea  of  God,  of  man,  of  religion,  each  of 
these  singly  all  of  them  together,  and  all  conceived  as  man's 
and  not  as  limited  to  any  elect  race  or  conditioned  by  any 
sacred  class.  It  was  wonderful  that  a  universal  idealism  so 
immense  and  mighty  should  have  so  lowly  an  origin  and  come 
to  be  in  a  world  so  prejudiced,  pragmatical  and  divided."^ 

The  relationship  which  Jesus  Christ  established  between 
God  and  man  was  one  of  fatherhood  and  sonship.  Our  pri- 
mary duty  as  God's  children  is  that  of  filial  love  to  God  and 
fraternal  love  to  each  other.  This  is  the  equal  and  common 
obligation  of  all.  In  the  religion  of  Jesus,  worship  does  not 
depend  on  sacred  persons,  places  or  rites,  but  is  a  thing  of  spirit 
and  truth.  The  best  prayer  is  not  that  offered  on  the  corner 
of  streets  or  in  the  public  assembly  to  be  heard  of  men.  The 
best  prayer  is  sacred  and  impersonal,  and  the  man  who  pleases 

^"The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  page  389. 

47 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

God  best  is  not  the  scrupulous  Pharisee  but  the  penitent 
publican. 

If  Christ  Jesus  be  measured  by  the  standard  of  the  Jewish 
religion;  if  His  conduct  be  judged  by  the  ceremonial  and  tra- 
ditional law  of  the  Jews  as  it  prevailed  in  His  day,  He  must  be 
pronounced  an  irreligious  person.  Furthermore,  in  all  that 
He  said  or  did  no  word  or  act  implied  a  purpose  on  His  part 
to  establish  any  order  of  priesthood  for  His  people  or  to  en- 
force any  sacerdotal  observance.  We  look  in  vain  in  any  of 
His  teachings  for  the  institutions  of  a  sacerdotal  order.  He 
promulgated  no  sacerdotal  law,  or  any  outward  form  of  wor- 
ship or  rules  of  conduct,  but  simply  required  that  His  people 
should  be  perfect  as  their  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect.  What 
He  founded  was  a  society  that  should  realize  His  ideals,  "a 
kingdom  of  Heaven"  that  should  be  spiritual  and  eternal,  and 
that  should  come  without  observation  to  abide  in  the  human 
consciousness;  a  realm  where  the  will  of  God  is  law,  and  the 
law  is  love,  and  the  citizens  are  the  living  and  the  obedient. 
To  the  Samaritan  woman  He  declared  that  God  is  Spirit  and 
must  be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  truth,  thus  settling  all  con- 
troversy as  to  the  sacred  places  of  worship. 

The  apostolic  church,  which  may  be  taken  as  interpreting 
the  mind  of  Christ,  provided  for  no  temple.  It  had  no  priests 
and  no  man  or  body  of  men  who  bore  the  name,  or  exercised 
the  functions,  or  fulfilled  the  duties  of  priest  or  the  priesthood, 
as  they  are  known  in  ancient  religions.  The  apostolic  church 
required  no  sacrifices,  save  those  of  the  spirit  and  the  life;  it 
had  no  sensuous  sanctities.  It  stood  among  the  ancient  faiths 
as  a  strange  and  extraordinary  thing — a  priestless  religion 
without  the  symbols,  sacrifices,  ceremonies,  officials,  hitherto 
held,  save  by  prophetic  Hebrewism  to  be  the  religious  all  and 
all. 

In  founding  His  ideal  religious  society  Jesus  discarded  all 
positive  laws,  whether  regulative,  ceremonial,  administrative  or 


THE    CHRISTIANITY    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT 

coercive ;  His  society  was  founded  simply  *on  discipleship,  and 
this  religious  society  lived  and  grew  by  faith  in  Him  and  what 
he  stands  for, — a  brotherhood  and  fellowship  of  the  Spirit. 
It  is  a  society  in  which  the  church  is  more  or  less  an  accident  of 
time  and  place,  but  in  which  the  spirit  and  truth  of  Christ  and 
imitation  of  Jesus'  life  are  essential. 

A  singularly  clear  yet  simple  and  beautiful  unfolding,  in 
short  compass,  of  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament  and 
of  the  real  secret  of  Jesus  Christ's  spirit  is  to  be  found  in  a 
volume  written  by  Dr.  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  the  eminent  English 
theologian.  The  passage  ought  not  to  be  mutilated  in  any  at- 
tempted summary;  I  am  constrained,  therefore,  to  give  it 
entire.  It  contains  the  very  essence  of  the  Christian  religion; 
It  is  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament  as  embodied  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"Of  His  ideal,  the  prophets  had  dreamed,  but  He  made  it 
an  articulate  reality.  God  was  to  Him  what  he  had  never  yet 
been  to  man — a  living  Father,  loving,  loved,  in  whom  He  wag 
embosomed,  through  whom  and  to  whom  He  lived.  He  knew 
no  moment  without  His  presence ;  suffered  no  grief  the  Father 
did  not  share;  tasted  no  joy  He  did  not  send;  spoke  no  word 
that  was  not  of  Him;  did  no  act  that  was  not  obedience  to  His 
will. 

Where  the  relation  was  so  immediately  filial  and  beauti- 
ful, the  mediation  of  a  priest  would  have  been  an  impertinence, 
the  use  of  his  sacrifices  and  forms  an  estrangement — the  com- 
ing of  a  cold,  dark  cloud  between  the  radiant  soul  of  the  Son 
and  the  gracious  face  of  the  Father. 

Where  true  love  lives  it  must  use  its  own  speech,  speak  in 
its  own  name,  and  feel  that  it  must  touch  and,  as  it  were,  hold 
with  its  own  hands  the  higher  love  that  loved  it  into  being. 
And  because  He  stood  so  related  to  the  Father,  He  and  the 
Father  had  one  love,  one  word,  one  will,  one  end.  To  see  Him 
was  to  see  the  Father ;  His  working  was  the  Father's.  Through 
Him  God  lived  among  men ;  the  glory  men  beheld  in  Him  was 
the  glory  of  the  Only  Begotten,  the  Incarnated  grace  and  truth. 

And  so  this  love  of  God  was  love  of  man  ;  in  the  Son  of  Man 
the  Father  of  men  served  His  children,  and  humanity  came  to 

49 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

know  its  God  and  the  things  in  which  He  delighted.  The  best 
service  of  God  was  a  ministry  that  redeemed  from  sin,  a  sac- 
rifice that  saved  from  death. 

The  wonderful  thing  in  religion  was  not  what  man  gave  to 
God,  but  what  God  gave  to  man — the  good,  the  truth,'  the  love 
— the  way  in  which  He  bore  his  sins  and  carried  his  sorrows, 
made  human  guilt  an  occasion  for  divine  pity,  and  the  cure  of 
hate  the  work  of  love.  What  God  is  among  His  worlds  Jesus 
was  among  men.  He  is  the  mind  and  heart  of  God  personal- 
ized for  humanity ;  His  universal  ideal  realized. 

And  after  what  manner  did  this  reahzed  ideal  live?  As 
embodied  compassion,  beneficence,  truth,  love,  working  for  the 
complete  redemption  of  men.  Every  kind  of  evil  was  to  Him  a 
misery  from  which  He  could  not  but  seek  to  save.  Disease  He 
loved  to  cure,  poverty  He  pitied,  doing  His  utmost  to  create 
the  temper  before  which  it  should  cease ;  the  common  afflic- 
tions of  man  touched  Him  with  sympathy,  subdued  Him  to 
tears.  But  what  moved  Him  most  was  moral  evil — the  sight 
of  man  in  the  hands  of  sin ;  and  in  order  to  save  him  from  it, 
He  took  an  altogether  new  way. 

He  dismissed  the  venerable  methods  and  impotent  formal- 
isms of  the  priest  and  the  scribe,  and  went  in  among  the  guilty 
that  He  might  in  the  very  heart  of  their  guilt  awaken  the  love 
of  good  and  of  God.  He  did  not  feel  that  he  condescended, 
only  that  His  love  was  a  sweet  compulsion  to  save ;  they  did 
not  feel  His  condescension,  only  the  goodness  that  was  too 
pure  for  their  sin  to  sully,  that  so  thought  of  their  good  as  to 
win  their  souls  for  God. 

And  the  result  was  altogether  wonderful.  The  law  of  the 
scribe  and  the  religion  of  the  priest  had  only  divided  men — 
had  made  good  and  evil  accidents  of  custom,  not  qualities  and 
states  of  the  living  person,  had  cured  no  sinner,  had  only  cre- 
ated fictitious  sins,  the  more  damning  that  they  were  so  false. 

But  the  new  spirit  and  way  of  Christ  found  the  common 
manhood  of  men,  united  them,  made  sin  moral,  change  from  it 
possible,  even  a  duty ;  made  religion  seem  like  the  concentrated 
and  organized  moral  energy  of  God  working  redemptively 
throup:h  men  on  behalf  of  man. 

There  never  was  a  grander  or  more  fruitful  revolution  of 
thought,  more  needed  on  earth,  more  manifestly  of  heaven. 
He  who  accomplished  it  was  indeed  a  Redeemer ;  through  Him 

50 


THE    CHRISTIANITY    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT 

religion  ceased  to  be  an  affair  of  the  priest  or  the  magistrate, 
transacted  in  the  temple  and  conducted  by  a  ceremonial  which 
was  prescribed  by  law;  and  became  the  supreme  concern  of 
man,  covering  his  whole  life,  working  in  every  way  for  his 
amelioration,  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the  perfect  virtue 
and  happiness  alike  of  the  individual  and  the  race — in  simple 
truth,  God's  own  method  for  realizing  in  man  His  ideal  of 
humanity. 

As  Jesus  lived  He  taught ;  His  teaching  but  articulated  the 
ideal  He  embodied  in  His  character  and  life.  One  thing  in 
that  teaching  is  most  remarkable — the  complete  absence  of 
sacerdotal  ideas,  the  non-recognition  of  those  customs  and  ele- 
ments men  had  been  wont  to  think  essential  to  religion. 

He  spoke  of  Himself  as  a  teacher,  never  as  a  priest;  as- 
sumed no  priestly  office,  performed  no  priestly  function, 
breathed  an  atmosphere  that  had  no  sacerdotal  odor,  that  was 
full  only  of  the  largest  and  most  fragrant  humanity. 

He  instituted  no  sacerdotal  office  or  rite,  appointed  no  man 
to.  any  sacerdotal  duty,  sent  His  disciples  forth  to  be  teachers 
or  preachers,  made  no  man  of  them  a  priest,  created  no  order 
of  priesthood  to  which  any  man  could  belong. 

Worship  to  Him  was  a  matter  of  the  Spirit;  it  needed  no 
consecrated  place  or  person — needed  only  the  heart  of  the  son 
to  be  real  before  the  Father.  The  best  worship  was  obedience ; 
the  man  perfect  as  God  is  perfect  was  the  man  who  pleased 
God. 

His  beatitudes  were  all  reserved  for  ethical  qualities  of 
mind,  were  never  promised  on  any  ceremonial  or  sacerdotal 
condition.  His  good  man  was  'poor  in  spirit,'  'meek,'  'merci- 
ful,' 'pure  in  heart,'  'hungering  after  righteousness,'  'a  peace- 
maker.' 

In  describing  His  ideal  of  goodness  He  found  its  antitheses 
in  the  ideals  of  the  temple  and  tradition.  His  example  of  uni- 
versal benevolence  was  'the  good  Samaritan';  its  contradiction 
the  priest  and  the  Levite.  True  prayer  was  illustrated  by  the 
penitent  publican,  false  by  the  formal  Pharisees. 

The  parables  that  vindicated  His  treatment  of  sinners  en- 
forced the  high  doctrines  that  nothing  was  so  agreeable  to 
God  as  their  salvation,  that  the  mission  of  the  God-like  was  to 
seek  and  save  them. 

The  duty  that  summarized  all  others  was  love  to  God;  the 

51 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

man  that  loved  most  obeyed  best — for  he  could  not  but  obey. 
To  love  God  was  to  love  man,  to  love  the  divine  Spirit  was  to 
do  a  divine  part,  to  be  pitiful,  to  forgive  as  God  forgives,  to 
bear  ill  and  do  good,  to  act  unto  others  in  a  God-like  way  that 
they  might  be  won  to  God-like  conduct. 

And  He  did  not  conceive  good  men  as  isolated.  They 
formed  a  society,  a  kingdom.  The  citizens  of  His  kingdom 
were  the  men  who  heard  His  voice  and  followed  His  way. 
God  reigned  in  and  over  them,  and  they  existed  for  His  ends, 
to  create  good  and  overcome  evil. 

The  kingdom  they  constituted  was  *of  heaven,'  opposed  in 
source  and  nature  to  those  founded  in  the  despotisms  and  in- 
iquities of  earth ;  and  also  *of  God,'  proceeded  from  the  Creator 
and  Sovereign  of  man,  that  His  own  high  order  might  be 
realized. 

Such  being  its  nature,  it  could  be  incorporated  in  no  polity, 
organized  under  no  local  forms,  into  no  national  or  temporal 
system;  it  was  a  'kingdom  of  the  truth,'  and  all  who  were  of 
the  truth  belonged  to  it.  It  was  a  sublime  idea ;  the  good  and 
holy  of  every  land  and  race  were  gathered  into  a  glorious  fel- 
lowship, dwelt  together,  however  far  apart  or  mutually  un- 
known, as  citizens  of  the  same  Eternal  City,  with  all  their 
scattered  energies  so  unified  by  the  will  of  God  as  to  be  co- 
ordinated and  co-operant  factors  of  human  progress  and  hap- 
piness. 

Men  have  not  yet  risen  to  the  clear  and  full  comprehension 
of  this  ideal ;  and  the  tardiest  in  reaching  it  are  these  organized 
polities  or  institutions  which  boast  themselves  sole  possessors 
of  Christ."!  

I  am  completing  this  chapter  during  the  close  of  the  year 
1910,  when  the  Christmas  spirit  is  finding  expression  in  mul- 
tiplied and  beautiful  ways;  when  Christmas  greetings  and 
messages  of  love  and  good  cheer  and  numberless  kind  wishes 
for  the  new  year  are  winging  their  way  to  the  very  ends  of  the 
earth.  At  such  a  time  as  this,  typical  of  that  coming  day  when 
the  message  borne  by  the  angels  at  the  advent  of  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem,  "Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men,"  will  be  realized, 
not  only  in  part,  as  now,  at  Christmas  time,  but  everywhere, 

^Catholicism :   Roman  and  Anglican,  pp.  27-31. 

52 


THE  CHRISTIANITY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

during  every  month  of  all  the  year,  is  it  not  fitting  that  I  should 
ask  you  to  look  at  this  wonderful  word-picture  of  Jesus  Christ, 
even  though  it  be  drawn  by  another  hand  than  mine. 

I  ask  no  higher  privilege,  no  more  exalted  mission  for  this 
book,  than  to  bring  you  face  to  face  with  this  inimitable  pre- 
sentation of  the  innermost  spirit  of  the  Master.  Here  is  re- 
vealed, as  it  were,  the  real  secret  of  the  life  which  Jesus  lived 
among  men,  a  life  and  character  so  complete  and  catholic  in 
its  humanity  as  to  compel  the  homage  of  universal  man.  It  is 
a  wonderful  disclosure  of  the  very  heart  of  that  great  Prophet 
and  Teacher,  who  is  the  mighty  overmastering  figure  among  all 
the  world's  greatest  Teachers  and  Prophets ;  the  one  personal- 
ity among  all  others  whose  words  and  works  have  divided  his- 
tory into  two;  that  which  went  before  and  that  which  came 
after;  Jesus  Christ,  who  brought  within  the  experience  of  man 
the  most  transcendent  of  all  mysteries,  how  the  mind  of  God 
could  be  translated  into  speech,  how  the  life  of  God  could  as- 
sume a  human  form;  Jesus  Christ,  the  point  towards  which 
everything  in  history  has  been  directed;  the  point  upon  which 
everything  in  history  is  so  centered  as  to  make  all  that  comes 
after  Him  increasingly  His. 

H  you  look  deeply  into  this  picture,  you  will  see,  as  in  open 
vision,  many  wonderful  things,  and  discover  many  wonderful 
meanings.  We  may  almost  hear  again  those  imperishable 
words  which  the  Master  uttered  in  that  memorable  interview 
with  Nicodemus,  a  ruler  of  the  Jews,  on  the  house-top  of  a 
Jewish  home  in  Jerusalem,  in  the  quiet  and  seclusion  of  the 
twilight  hours  when  the  evening  shadows  had  lengthened  and 
the  heavens  were  brilliant  with  the  stars  that  looked  down  upon 
him ;  words  which  have  come  ringing  down  the  ages,  filled  with 
the  melody  of  heavenly  music  that  has  been  falling  in  sweetest 
cadence  upon  human  ears  ever  since  these  words  were  spoken : 

"For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  be- 
gotten Son  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish 
but  have  everlasting  life." 

53 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

man  that  loved  most  obeyed  best — for  he  could  not  but  obey. 
To  love  God  was  to  love  man,  to  love  the  divine  Spirit  was  to 
do  a  divine  part,  to  be  pitiful,  to  forgive  as  God  forgives,  to 
bear  ill  and  do  good,  to  act  unto  others  in  a  God-like  way  that 
they  might  be  won  to  God-like  conduct. 

And  He  did  not  conceive  good  men  as  isolated.  They 
formed  a  society,  a  kingdom.  The  citizens  of  His  kingdom 
were  the  men  who  heard  His  voice  and  followed  His  way. 
God  reigned  in  and  over  them,  and  they  existed  for  His  ends, 
to  create  good  and  overcome  evil. 

The  kingdom  they  constituted  was  *of  heaven,'  opposed  in 
source  and  nature  to  those  founded  in  the  despotisms  and  in- 
iquities of  earth ;  and  also  'of  God,'  proceeded  from  the  Creator 
and  Sovereign  of  man,  that  His  own  high  order  might  be 
realized. 

Such  being  its  nature,  it  could  be  incorporated  in  no  polity, 
organized  under  no  local  forms,  into  no  national  or  temporal 
system;  it  was  a  'kingdom  of  the  truth,'  and  all  who  were  of 
the  truth  belonged  to  it.  It  was  a  sublime  idea ;  the  good  and 
holy  of  every  land  and  race  were  gathered  into  a  glorious  fel- 
lowship, dwelt  together,  however  far  apart  or  mutually  un- 
known, as  citizens  of  the  same  Eternal  City,  with  all  their 
scattered  energies  so  unified  by  the  will  of  God  as  to  be  co- 
ordinated and  co-operant  factors  of  human  progress  and  hap- 
piness. 

Men  have  not  yet  risen  to  the  clear  and  full  comprehension 
of  this  ideal ;  and  the  tardiest  in  reaching  it  are  these  organized 
polities  or  institutions  which  boast  themselves  sole  possessors 
of  Christ."^  

I  am  completing  this  chapter  during  the  close  of  the  year 
1910,  when  the  Christmas  spirit  is  finding  expression  in  mul- 
tiplied and  beautiful  ways;  when  Christmas  greetings  and 
messages  of  love  and  good  cheer  and  numberless  kind  wishes 
for  the  new  year  are  winging  their  way  to  the  very  ends  of  the 
earth.  At  such  a  time  as  this,  typical  of  that  coming  day  when 
the  message  borne  by  the  angels  at  the  advent  of  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem,  "Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men,"  will  be  realized, 
not  only  in  part,  as  now,  at  Christmas  time,  but  everywhere, 

^Catholicism :   Roman  and  Anglican,  pp.  27-31. 

52 


THE  CHRISTIANITY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

during  every  month  of  all  the  year,  is  it  not  fitting  that  I  should 
ask  you  to  look  at  this  wonderful  word-picture  of  Jesus  Christ, 
even  though  it  be  drawn  by  another  hand  than  mine. 

I  ask  no  higher  privilege,  no  more  exalted  mission  for  this 
book,  than  to  bring  you  face  to  face  with  this  inimitable  pre- 
sentation of  the  innermost  spirit  of  the  Master.  Here  is  re- 
vealed, as  it  were,  the  real  secret  of  the  life  which  Jesus  lived 
among  men,  a  life  and  character  so  complete  and  catholic  in 
its  humanity  as  to  compel  the  homage  of  universal  man.  It  is 
a  wonderful  disclosure  of  the  very  heart  of  that  great  Prophet 
and  Teacher,  who  is  the  mighty  overmastering  figure  among  all 
the  world's  greatest  Teachers  and  Prophets ;  the  one  personal- 
ity among  all  others  whose  words  and  works  have  divided  his- 
tory into  two;  that  which  went  before  and  that  which  came 
after;  Jesus  Christ,  who  brought  within  the  experience  of  man 
the  most  transcendent  of  all  mysteries,  how  the  mind  of  God 
could  be  translated  into  speech,  how  the  life  of  God  could  as- 
sume a  human  form;  Jesus  Christ,  the  point  towards  which 
everything  in  history  has  been  directed;  the  point  upon  which 
everything  in  history  is  so  centered  as  to  make  all  that  comes 
after  Him  increasingly  His. 

If  you  look  deeply  into  this  picture,  you  will  see,  as  in  open 
vision,  many  wonderful  things,  and  discover  many  wonderful 
meanings.  We  may  almost  hear  again  those  imperishable 
words  which  the  Master  uttered  in  that  memorable  interview 
with  Nicodemus,  a  ruler  of  the  Jews,  on  the  house-top  of  a 
Jewish  home  in  Jerusalem,  in  the  quiet  and  seclusion  of  the 
twilight  hours  when  the  evening  shadows  had  lengthened  and 
the  heavens  were  brilliant  with  the  stars  that  looked  down  upon 
him ;  words  which  have  come  ringing  down  the  ages,  filled  with 
the  melody  of  heavenly  music  that  has  been  falling  in  sweetest 
cadence  upon  human  ears  ever  since  these  words  were  spoken : 

*'For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  be- 
gotten Son  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish 
but  have  everlasting  life." 

53 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

is  irrefragibly  supported  both  by  internal  and  external  evidence. 
The  entire  trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament  narrative  is 
now  admitted — by  friends  and  foes  alike — to  be  the  assured 
result  of  the  most  searching  and  exhaustive  criticism.  The 
words  of  Jesus  stand  unimpeached,  the  works  unchallenged. 

The  competency  of  the  New  Testament  writers  who  attend- 
ed Jesus  during  His  earthly  ministry,  as  eye-witnesses  of  these 
works,  is  such  as  would  be  accepted  in  any  court  of  law.  No 
reasonable  doubt  can  exist  as  to  the  facts  concerning  His  min- 
istry. That  He  went  about  the  cities  and  villages  of  Judea, 
teaching  in  Jewish  synagogues,  preaching  the  gospel  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  healing  all  manner  of  diseases  among 
the  people,  by  spiritual  methods  only,  is  certified  to  by  those 
who  closely  attended  Him  as  His  chosen  disciples  and  who  per- 
sonally saw  the  wonderful  works  which  He  did.  In  His  healing 
ministry,  no  record  exists  that  He  ever  administered  drugs  or 
prayed  to  know  if  God  were  willing  a  man  should  live.  He 
acted  upon  the  basis  that  man,  whose  Hfe  is  God,  is  immortal, 
and  not  that  he  has  two  lives,  one  to  be  destroyed  and  the  other 
to  be  made  indestructible. 

In  referring  to  the  sane,  sober  and  natural  manner  in  which 
the  story  of  Jesus'  life  is  told  by  the  synoptic  writers,  Dr.  Fair- 
bairn  says :  "The  Gospel  writers  did  not  invent  their  material. 
They  realized  the  scene  so  perfectly  that  He  is  presented  as 
only  a  pen  which  follows  the  tongue  of  the  speaker  describing 
expressions  too  vivid  to  be  forgotten  can  show  Him.  He  is 
presented  by  these  historians  in  the  simplest  terms  of  history. 

"He  who  was  conceived  as  the  Word  became  flesh.  He  is 
represented  as  the  most  natural  character  in  all  literature.  In 
Him  there  is  nothing  obscure,  dark  or  mysterious ;  He  seems 
to  lie  all  open  to  the  day.  His  words  are  simple  and  plain ;  His 
thought  is  always  clear  and  never  complex.  He  is  the  last  per- 
son who  could  be  described  as  a  man  of  mystery.  He  does  not 
study  or  practice  any  art  of  concealment.  He  calls  His  disciples 
and  they  live  with  Him,  and  He  lives  with  them  as  a  man 

56 


JESUS'  HEALING  MINISTRY 

among  men.  He  does  not  claim  to  know  the  secrets  of  nature 
or  the  forgotten  things  of  history,  or  the  day  and  hour  of  des- 
tiny, which  the  Father  alone  knoweth.  He  does  not  stand  on 
His  dignity  or  require  men  to  observe  the  order  of  their  coming 
and  going.  A  Jew  who  comes  by  night  is  not  refused  an  audi- 
ence, for  he  has  come  in  deference  to  his  conscience,  even 
though  he  comes  by  night  in  deference  to  the  Jews ;  Jesus 
speaks  to  him  as  if  all  men  stood  before  Him  in  that  one  man, 
and  as  a  simple  matter  of  fact  they  did  so  stand.  While  He 
rests,  tired  and  thirsty,  by  Jacob's  well,  He  speaks  with  the 
woman  of  Samaria  and  asks  from  her  water  to  drink,  and  then 
He  addresses  to  her  words  the  world  was  waiting  to  hear.  We 
see  Him  loved  of  man  and  woman,  loving  as  well  as  loved,  liv- 
ing the  homely,  natural,  beautiful  life  of  our  kind.  His  is  the 
common,  every-day,  familiar  humanity,  which  suffers  and  re- 
joices, knows  sorrow  and  death. 

"His  character  appears  throughout  as  natural,  His  conduct 
spontaneous.  His  motives  simple.  His  thought  and  speech  trans- 
parently sincere.  He  is  without  the  literary  consciousness ;  He 
did  not  write  or  command  anything  to  be  written  concerning 
Himself;  neither  did  He  seem  to  think  that  the  craft  of  letters 
had  any  concern  with  Him  or  He  any  concern  with  it.  His 
field  of  action  was  in  the  open  air,  not  in  the  study;  He  was 
content  to  impress  Himself  on  the  minds  of  men,  to  live  divinely 
careless  in  the  present,  without  any  thought  as  to  how  He 
should  seem  to  the  future,  yet  so  conscious  of  the  all-seeing 
and  all-enfolding  God  as  to  make  of  the  moment  he  lived  in  an 
eternal  Now."^ 

The  story  of  Jesus  healing  ministry  is  told  in  simple  yet 
explicit  terms.  "In  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  shall 
the  truth  be  established."  The  evidence  which  the  New  Tes- 
tament supplies  us  concerning  the  cures  which  Jesus  per- 
formed is  this :  "And  Jesus  went  about  all  the  cities  and  vil- 
lages, teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and  preaching  the  gospel 
of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  every  sickness  and  every  disease 
among  the  people. 

"And  they  brought  unto  Him  all  sick  people  that  were 
taken  with  divers  diseases  and  torments,  and  those  which  were 


*"The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion." 

57 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

possessed  with  devils,  and  those  which  were  htnatick,  and  those 
that  had  the  palsy;  and  He  healed  them.  And  there  followed 
Him  great  multitudes  of  people  from  Galilee,  and  from  Deca- 
polis,  and  from  Jerusalem,  and  from  Judea,  and  from  beyond 
Jordan. 

"And  at  even,  when  the  sun  did  set,  they  brought  unto  Him 
all  that  were  diseased,  and  them  that  were  possessed  with 
devils.  And  all  the  city  was  gathered  together  at  the  door. 
And  He  healed  many  that  were  sick  of  divers  diseases,  and 
cast  out  many  devils. 

**And  Jesus  went  forth  and  saw  a  great  multitude,  and  was 
moved  with  compassion  towards  them,  and  He  healed  their 
sick. 

"And  when  they  were  gone  over,  they  came  into  the  land  of 
Geneseret.  And  when  the  men  of  that  place  had  knowledge  of 
Him,  they  sent  out  into  all  that  country  round  about,  and 
brought  unto  Him  all  that  were  diseased;  and  besought  Him 
that  they  might  only  touch  the  hem  of  His  garment;  and  as 
many  as  touched  were  made  perfectly  whole. 

"And  Jesus  departed  from  thence,  and  came  nigh  unto  the 
sea  of  Galilee;  and  went  up  into  a  mountain  and  sat  down 
there.  And  great  multitudes  came  unto  Him,  having  with 
them  those  that  were  lame,  blind,  dumb,  maimed  and  many 
others,  and  cast  them  down  at  Jesus'  feet;  and  He  healed 
them;  insomuch  that  the  multitude  wondered,  when  they  saw 
the  dumb  to  speak,  the  maimed  to  be  made  whole,  the  lame  to 
walk,  and  the  blind  to  see:  and  they  glorified  the  God  of 
Israel. 

"And  whithersoever  He  entered,  into  villages,  or  cities,  or 
country,  they  laid  the  sick  in  the  streets,  and  besought  Him  that 
they  might  touch,  if  it  were,  the  border  of  His  garment :  and  as 
many  as  touched  Him  were  made  whole. 

"And  He  came  down  with  them,  and  stood  in  the  plain,  and 
the  company  of  His  disciples,  and  a  great  multitude  of  people 

/  58 


JESUS'  HEALING  MINISTRY 

out  of  all  Judea  and  Jerusalem,  and  from  the  sea  coast  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon,  which  came  to  hear  Him,  and  to  be  healed  of  all 

their   diseases And   the   whole   multitude   sought   to 

touch  Him;  for  there  went  virtue  out  of  Him  and  healed 
them  all." 

In  no  single  instance  in  the  record  of  His  healing  ministry 
do  the  apostles  draw  any  distinction  as  to  the  character  of  the 
disease  which  Jesus  cured.  No  reference  is  made  to  func- 
tional or  organic  diseases,  nor  is  there  any  relegation  of  the 
latter  type  of  disease  to  the  medical  faculty  of  the  time,  on 
the  presumption  that  such  cases  were  beyond  His  power  to 
heal.  We  are  not  left  in  ignorance  as  to  the  means  by  which 
He  performed  His  cures.  He  made  it  perfectly  plain  to  His 
followers  that  the  healing  work  which  He  performed  was 
accomplished  by  spiritual  means.  In  His  divine  therapeutics, 
"The  Father  that  dwelleth  in  Me,  He  doeth  the  works;  if  I 
cast  out  devils  by  the  spirit  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
come  unto  you." 

Luke,  ''the  beloved  physician,"  records  Jesus'  healing  works 
with  the  same  impartiality  and  breadth  of  description  as  did 
the  other  disciples.  In  no  instance  does  he  introduce  any 
distinction  as  to  the  nature  of  the  cures  wrought.  All  the  writ- 
ers of  the  gospel  narrative  concur  in  the  modus  of  cure.  No 
reference  anywhere  in  the  Gospel  is  made  to  the  use  of  drugs, 
surgery,  hyipene  or  material  remedies  or  the  cooperation  of  the 
medical  profession  of  that  day. 

To  the  leper's  appeal  He  answered,  "be  thou  clean,"  and 
immediately  the  leprosy  disappeared ;  to  the  man  sick  with  the 
palsy.  He  said,  "arise  and  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  into  thine 
house,"  and  the  man  arose  and  departed  to  his  house.  In  the 
home  of  Jairus  amid  the  lamentations  of  friends,  He  de- 
clared, "the  maid  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth,"  and  He  took  the 
child  by  the  hand  and  she  arose;  to  the  man  with  the  with- 
ered hand.  He  said,  "stretch  forth  thy  hand,"  and  the  man 

59 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

obeyed  and  stretched  it  forth;  the  poor  man  suffering  from 
a  threefold  affliction,  possessed  with  a  devil,  blind  and  dumb, 
He  healed  with  a  word;  **and  the  blind  and  dumb  both  saw 
and  spake,  insomuch  that  the  people  marveled." 

The  woman  suffering  from  an  infirmity  of  twelve  years' 
standing,  who  had  suffered  many  things  of  many  physicians 
and  who  had  spent  all  that  she  had  and  grew  no  better  but 
rather  worse,  touched  the  hem  of  His  garment  and  "straight- 
way she  was  healed  of  that  plague."  To  blind  Bartimeus,  He 
uttered  the  simple  but  mighty  words,  "receive  thy  sight."  He 
was  moved  with  compassion  for  the  widow  of  Nain,  follow- 
ing the  funeral  procession  of  her  dead  son,  and  bid  her 
"weep  not."  To  her  son  in  the  bier  He  said,  "young  man,  I 
say  unto  thee,  arise,"  and  the  dead  sat  up  and  began  to  speak. 
To  the  woman  who  had  a  spirit  of  infirmity  eighteen  years 
and  was  bowed  together  and  could  in  nowise  lift  up  herself, 
He  speaks  in  words  of  authority,  "woman,  thou  are  loosed  from 
thine  infirmity,"  and  immediately  she  was  made  straight.  To 
the  man  with  an  affliction  of  thirty-eight  years'  standing  He 
said,  "rise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk,"  and  immediately  the 
man  was  made  whole  and  took  up  his  bed  and  walked. 

To  the  ten  men  suffering  from  leprosy  and  standing  afar 
off,  the  direction  is  given,  "go  show  yourselves  to  the  priest," 
and  as  they  went  they  were  all  healed.  To  Lazarus,  four  days 
in  the  sepulchre,  the  Master's  voice  sounded,  "come  forth," 
and  Lazarus  obeyed. 

The  Scribes,  Pharisees  and  doctors  in  Jesus'  time  were  no 
more  ready  than  are  the  medical  and  clerical  professions  of 
to-day  to  accept  such  startling  departures  from  the  recognized 
and  customary  methods  employed  by  regular  physicians  in 
combating  disease.  In  spite,  however,  of  Jewish  unbelief  in 
the  method  and  reality  of  these  cures,  it  is  indubitably  estab- 
lished that  Jesus  healed  all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner 
of  disease  by  purely  spiritual  means.    And,  what  is  more,  the 

60 


JESUS'  HEALING  MINISTRY 

healing  work  which  He  did  was  not  to  die  with  Him ;  it  was  to 
be  perpetuated  by  His  followers,  and  it  is  also  in  indisputable 
evidence  that  this  healing  work  was  successfully  carried  on  by 
the  early  Christians,  during  the  first  two  or  three  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era.  The  commission  to  carry  on  Jesus'  healing 
work  is  expressed  in  the  following  explicit  terms : 

"Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature And  these  signs  will  follow  them  that  be- 
lieve ;  in  My  name  they  shall  cast  out  devils ;  they  shall  speak 
with  new  tongues ;  they  shall  take  up  serpents ;  and  if  they 
shall  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them ;  they  shall 
lay  hands  on  the  sick  and  they  shall  recover." 

Matthew  states  that  Jesus  gave  his  twelve  disciples  power 
against  unclean  spirits  to  cast  them  out,  and  to  heal  all  manner 
of  sickness  and  all  manner  of  disease.  These  disciples  Jesus 
sent  out  with  a  charge  to  preach,  saying,  "the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand,"  commissioning  them  at  the  same  time  to 
"heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  raise  the  dead,  cast  out 
devils."  Mark  says  that  the  disciples  went  out  and  preached 
that  men  should  repent  everywhere.  He  also  records  that 
they  cast  out  many  devils  and  anointed  with  oil  many  that 
were  sick  and  healed  them. 

Luke  informs  us  that  Jesus  appointed  other  seventy  also 
and  sent  them  out  two  by  two,  with  instructions  to  heal  the 
sick  in  whatsoever  house  they  entered,  and  to  say  unto  them, 
"the  kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh  unto  you."  He  also  re- 
lates that  the  seventy  returned  again  with  joy,  saying,  "Lord, 
even  the  devils  are  subject  unto  us  through  Thy  name."  Jesus 
immediately  responded  with  this  wonderful  assurance,  "behold, 
I  give  you  power  to  tread  on  serpents  and  scorpions,  and  over 
all  the  power  of  the  enemy;  and  nothing  shall  by  any  means 
hurt  you."  His  commands  do  not  limit  His  followers'  activ- 
ities to  any  particular  section  of  the  country,  nor  to  any  special 
period  of  time,  nor  to  any  particular  class  of  people.    "Heal  the 

61 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  devils,  raise  the  dead:  freely 
ye  have  received,  freely  give."  These  were  to  be  their  cre- 
dentials that  men  might  know  the  power  of  the  Truth  and  be- 
lieve that  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  as  Jesus  taught  was  "nigh 
at  hand." 

This  commission  which  He  gave  to  His  disciples  to  pesr 
petuate  His  work  on  earth,  to  preach  the  gospel  and  heal  the 
sick  (for  Jesus'  gospel  is  a  healing  gospel)  has  never  been 
withdrawn.  It  has  no  expiration  clause ;  it  has  lost  none  of  its 
binding  force  and  effect  with  the  lapse  of  centuries;  further- 
more, there  is  absolutely  no  authority  for  assuming  that  the 
Master's  commission  to  preach  and  to  heal  meant  that  healing 
was  to  become  a  dead  letter.  To  assume  otherwise,  as  scholas- 
tic theology  has  done,  is  to  fail  to  present  Christianity  in  the 
fulness  of  the  Gospel.  The  commission  has  the  same  divine 
authority  as  the  Ten  Commandments.  It  is  universal  in  its 
application.  There  has  been  no  abrogation  of  any  of  its  pro- 
visions; nor  is  there  any  authority  vested  in  any  ecclesiastical 
court  or  body  of  men  on  earth,  to  annul  that  commission ; 
that  prerogative  belongs  to  God  alone.  Jesus'  words  were 
God's  words. 

Whence,  then,  comes  the  authority  for  rejecting  this  plain 
command  to  His  followers  to  heal  the  sick  or  for  limiting  the 
healing  work  of  the  church  to  the  days  of  Jesus  and  the  early 
apostles?  By  what  right,  may  we  ask,  do  the  professional  ex- 
pounders of  the  Scriptures  accept  that  part  of  Jesus'  commis- 
sion to  preach  the  gospel,  and  reject  that  part  which  commands 
them  to  heal  the  sick?  Jesus  overcame  all  material  obstacles 
that  lay  in  His  pathway,  and  demonstrated  His  ability  to  heal 
the  sick  and  overcome  death  by  the  power  of  the  divine  Mind. 
When  He  directed  His  followers  to  go  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  His  gospel  to  every  creature  and  to  perform  those 
healing  works  which  He  did.  He  spoke  by  divine  authority. 
And  He  spoke  with  equal  authority  when  He  declared  that 

62 


JESUS'  HEALING  MINISTRY 

His  followers  should  do  even  greater  works  than  He  had  done. 

The  record  of  Jesus'  healing  ministry,  established  by  irre- 
fragable proofs,  has  in  this  day  and  age  a  deeper  significance 
than  in  any  previous  century  in  the  history  of  the  church.  The 
Christ-cure  movement  and  its  demonstration  of  the  fact  that 
spiritual  remedies  are  of  avail  in  the  cure  of  the  physical  ills 
of  mankind,  directs  attention  anew  to  Jesus'  command  to  all 
his  true  followers,  to  heal  the  sick  and  to  accomplish  even 
greater  works  of  healing.  The  modus  of  cure  is  equally  plain ; 
the  power  of  God  working  through  human  instrumentality,  in 
answer  to  the  holy  uplifting  prayer  of  faith. 

The  present  possibility  of  restoring  the  lost  healing  function 
which  was  so  distinguishing  a  feature  of  the  early  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era,  and  which  gave  the  church  such  an  astonish- 
ing success,  is  in  the  very  forefront  of  religious  questions  af- 
fecting the  future  of  the  church.  And  the  testimony  of  the 
Scriptures,  concerning  the  early  Christians,  is  that  "they  went 
forth  and  preached  everywhere,  the  Lord  working  with  them 
and  confirming  the  word  with  signs  following."  H  these 
things  be  true  of  the  early  Christian  church,  how,  or  by  what 
argument,  can  it  be  shown,  that  this  healing  power  should  be 
non-existent  in  the  Christian  church  of  to-day? 

Jesus  explained  to  His  followers  the  mighty  power  of  faith, 
when  backed  by  the  energies  of  the  divine  Spirit,  in  terms  be- 
fore which  the  church  has  stumbled  and  halted  and  hesitated 
ever  since  the  first  few  centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  He  taught 
His  followers  faith,  and  strengthened  that  faith  by  illustrations 
of  God's  omnipotence,  which  even  to  this  day  staggers  Chris- 
tian belief.  He  assured  His  disciples  that  even  if  they  had 
faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  they  would  be  able  to  re- 
move m.ountains,  and  that  nothing  should  be  impossible  to 
them. 

Jesus  Christ  declared  that  heaven  and  earth  would  pass 
away,  but  that  His  words  should  not.     And  they  have  not, 

63 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

though  nineteen  centuries  have  come  and  gone  since  they  were 
first  spoken.  He  taught  as  the  great  teacher  of  mankind.  His 
words  are  words  of  absolute  truth,  enduring  unto  all  genera- 
tions. The  mission  of  His  followers,  He  announced  in  these 
words :  "Ye  have  not  chosen  Me,  but  I  have  chosen  you,  and 
ordained  you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit  and 
that  your  fruit  should  remain;  that  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask 
of  the  Father  in  My  name  He  may  give  it  to  you." 

This  promise  He  repeated  afterwards  in  even  more  em- 
phatic form:  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  whatsoever  ye 
shall  ask  the  Father  in  My  name,  He  will  give  it  you.  Hitherto 
have  ye  asked  nothing  in  My  name:  ask,  and  ye  shall  receive, 
that  your  joy  may  be  full."  At  another  time  He  told  them: 
*Tf  ye  abide  in  me,  and  my  words  abide  in  you,  ye  shall  ask 
what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you."  In  making  these 
statements  he  was  addressing  not  merely  the  few  disciples  nor 
even  the  multitudes  which  met  Him  in  His  daily  work.  He 
was  addressing  humanity,  else  why  should  He  say,  "verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  believeth  on  Me,  the  works  that 
I  do,  shall  he  do  also;  and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he 
do"? 

Our  responsibiHty  to  God  is  the  responsibility  to  live  in 
perfect  harmony  at  every  point  as  Jesus  did. 

"Cast  thyself  upon  the  will  of  God  and  thou  shalt  become 
as  God.  For  thou  art  God,  if  thy  will  be  the  divine  will.  This 
is  the  great  secret — it  is  the  mystery  of  redemption." 

Jesus  knew  that  His  unity  with  the  Father  was  complete 
and  therefore  He  could  say :  "I  and  the  Father  are  one."  But 
He  identified  His  Hfe  with  man's  Hfe  thus:  "Neither  pray  I 
for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also  which  shall  believe  on  Me 
through  their  word ;  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  Thou,  Father, 
art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us :  that 
the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me.  And  the  glory 
which  thou  gavest  Me  I  have  given  them;  that  they  might  be 

64 


JESUS'  HEALING  MINISTRY  ' 

one,  even  as  We  are  one :  I  in  them  and  Thou  in  me,  that  they 
may  be  made  perfect  in  one." 

The  ages  waited  for  Jesus'  words  of  Life  and  Truth  and 
Love;  words  that  are  stirring  in  the  spiritual  consciousness  of 
humanity  as  never  before  in  the  history  of  the  race.  Con- 
vinced of  that  essential  unity  of  humanity  and  divinity,  which 
Jesus  exemplified  as  the  ideal  relation  between  God  and  man, 
the  time  is  hastening  when  man  will  recognize  the  divinity 
within  himself  and  become  the  "luminous  dwelling  place  of 
God."  This  relationship  vests  him  with  a  power  in  keeping 
with  the  dignity  of  his  birth;  sooner  or  later  he  will  rise  to 
the  full  stature  of  manhood  in  Christ  and  reach  the  full  fruition 
of  that  health  and  strength  which  is  rightfully  his. 


VIII. 

INSUFFICIENCY  OF  MATERIAL  REMEDIES 

MEDICINE  as  a  profession  had  its  origin  in  idolatrous 
ages.  Its  practitioners  were  pagan  priests  who  sought 
the  aid  of  the  gods  in  their  heaHng  works.  According  to  the 
history  of  "Four  Thousand  Years  of  Medicine,"  Apollo  was  the 
god  of  medicine  and  dictated  the  first  prescription.  Whether 
this  had  any  connection  with  his  subsequent  fate  is  not  in 
evidence;  however,  he  was  banished  from  heaven  and  endured 
great  suflferings  on  earth.  Hippocrates  is  said  to  have  turned 
from  the  image  gods  to  vegetable  and  mineral  drugs  for  heal- 
ing, and  may  be  considered  the  father  of  materia  medica.  How 
successful  medical  practice  has  been  may  be  judged  from  the 
fact  that,  according  to  good  authority,  50,000,000  people  die 
annually.  Of  this  number  the  tremendous  proportion  of  one- 
half  die  prematurely,  chiefly  because  of  the  insufficiency  of 
material  means  to  cope  with  disease. 

Presumably  all  these  people  did  what  they  could  to  keep 
alive  and  in  health,  with  such  help  as  the  medical  profession 
could  render.  In  obedience  to  their  advisers  they  have  gulped 
down  the  animal,  the  vegetable  and  the  mineral  kingdoms 
piecemeal  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  keep  body  and  soul  together, 
which,  as  a  hardened  cynic  has  remarked,  "had  better  be  sep- 
arated." The  rapid  increase  of  diseases  unknown  to  the  pro- 
fession a  few  years  ago ;  the  increase  of  drugs,  specialists  and 
trained  nurses,  is  rapidly  making  sickness  a  luxury  which  can 
be  indulged  in  only  by  the  rich.  Birth  is  expensive,  disease  is 
expensive;  death  is  expensive. 

That  hospitals  and  dispensaries  do  not  lack  for  patronage 

66 


INSUFFICIENCY  OF  MATERIAL  REMEDIES 

is  evident  from  the  statistics  given  by  Dr.  Huber,  w^ho  states 
that  in  1895  out  of  a  population  of  1,800,000  in  Manhattan, 
793,000  appear  on  the  record  as  having  sought  medical  aid.  It 
is  fair  to  say,  however,  that  this  large  proportion  is  not  only 
due  to  insufficiency  of  the  remedies  employed  by  materia 
medica,  but  to  the  unfavorable  conditions,  the  squalor,  con- 
gestion and  poverty  of  the  poor  classes.  The  habit  of  going  to 
the  doctor  for  a  prescription  and  of  taking  inanimate  matter 
as  a  prevention  of  sickness,  or  for  the  cure  of  disease,  is  bred 
in  the  bones.     It  is  one  of  the  legacies  of  the  ages. 

The  extent  of  the  drug  habit  may  be  judged  from  the  fact 
that  the  wholesale  and  retail  drug  business  has  reached  an  enor- 
mous sum  of  $200,000,000  per  annum.  To  this  colossal  ex- 
penditure must  be  added  the  physician's  fees  for  medical  at- 
tendance. A  well  known  American  weekly  states  that  the 
200,000  doctors  in  active  practice  in  the  United  States,  one  for 
each  four  hundred  people,  collect  in  fees  each  year  more  than 
$150,000,000.  Prescription  bills  and  patent  medicines  enor- 
mously swell  these  colossal  expenditures. 

An  unfortunate  thing  about  this  outlay  is  that  the  effects 
upon  the  human  system  are  largely  a  matter  of  experiment  on 
the  part  of  the  physician.  Drug  experimentation  is  coincident 
with  drug  adulteration,  and  it  is  an  even  question  which  does 
the  more  harm.  In  combination  the  wonder  is  how  the  patient 
ever  pulls  through.  Dean  Henry  A.  Rusby,  of  the  College  of 
Pharmacy  of  Columbia  University,  the  United  States  expert 
on  the  qualification  of  drugs  entering  the  port  of  New  York, 
and  the  National  President  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  states  that  an  organized  and  powerful  effort  is 
being  made  to  rob  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  of  stan- 
dard tests  for  strength  and  purity  of  drugs.  Commercial 
interests  are  striving  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  further 
standards  and  to  degrade  still  others.  Certain  physicians  insist 
that  drugs  of  which  they  disapprove,  no  matter  how  widely 

67 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

they  are  used  in  the  prescriptions  of  the  majority  of  the  pro- 
fession, shall  be  thrust  out  of  the  book  of  standards,  thus  de- 
priving the  government  of  the  power  of  requiring  definite 
gauges  of  purity  and  strength. 

"Eighty  to  ninety  per  cent  of  the  drugs  used  in  this  country 
by  physicians,"  says  Dr.  Rusby,  come  from  foreign  countries. 
Within  the  past  two  years  enormous  quantities  of  spurious  and 
defective  drugs  have  been  rejected  at  the  port  of  New  York 
and  other  ports  and  reshipped  to  Europe.  Drug  warehouses 
at  Trieste,  Amsterdam,  Hamburg  and  other  important  centres 
abroad  are  stuffed  to  overflowing  with  these  worthless  medica- 
ments and  with  still  greater  quantities  of  drugs  that  have  b6en 
withheld  for  shipment  to  the  United  States,  out  of  the  con- 
viction that  they  would  be  turned  back.  All  these  owners  are 
waiting  in  the  belief,  encouraged  by  commercial  interests  on 
this  side,  that  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  Book  of  vStan- 
dards  will  be  so  modified  as  to  let  down  the  bars  of  their 
admission.  Without  the  standard  which  such  a  book  provides, 
neither  the  medical  nor  the  pharmaceutical  profession  can 
authoritatively  identify,  administer,  compound  or  prescribe 
medicinal  drugs  for  patients,  nor  can  any  legal  authority  en- 
force purity  and  definite  degrees  of  strength. 

The  figures  already  given  are  by  no  means  the  full  measure 
of  outlay  in  connection  with  the  practice  of  medicine.  There  is 
the  cost  of  maintenance  of  hospitals  and  clinics  and  of  surgical 
instruments  and  appliances ;  the  expenditures  for  the  education 
of  these  200,000  doctors ;  for  text-books  on  surgery,  anatomy, 
physiology  and  for  medical  works  generally,  bearing  on  the 
prevention  and  cure  of  disease.  To  finish  a  course  of  training 
in  the  medical  schools,  and  to  secure  the  required  diploma, 
each  student  must  spend  on  an  average  at  least  $500.  For  a 
medical  profession  which  has  a  membership  of  200,000,  this 
means  an  outlay  of  $100,000,000,  to  which  must  be  added  the 
expense  of  the  physician's  library,  costing  on  an  average  of 

68 


INSUFFICIENCY  OF  MATERIAL  REMEDIES 

$50,  or  $10,000,000  more.  To  this  annual  expenditure  of 
$350,000,000  for  drugs  and  medical  attendance,  $150,000,000 
must  therefore  be  added. 

But  this  is  not  all  that  is  involved  in  the  problem  of  exter- 
minating physical  ills.  According  to  the  igo6  statistics  of  the 
New  York  State  Department  of  Health,  129,833  people  died 
under  medical  treatment,  a  percentage  of  17.3  a  thousand  of 
population  for  the  entire  state.  Applied  to  our  90,000,000  peo- 
ple this  ratio  would  mean  that  1,557,000  persons  die  annually 
throughout  the  country.  When  a  person  dies,  he  has  to  have 
a  decent  burial ;  that  means  an  average  expense  of  at  least  $100 
each,  a  total  funeral  bill  of  $155,700,000  per  annum. 

If  we  accept  the  statement  of  medical  authorities  that  one- 
half  of  the  deaths  are  preventable,  then  the  $77,850,000  funeral 
expenses  of  1906  could  have  been  saved  and  778,500  people 
should  be  alive  instead  of  in  their  graves.  Sickness  and  death 
are  expensive ;  how  to  overcome  them  is  a  task  of  tremendous 
proportions  in  which  every  human  being,  rich  or  poor,  high  or 
low,  young  or  old,  has  a  vital  interest. 

This  enormous  annual  expenditure  of  $350,000,000  to 
$500,000,000  annually  to  maintain  the  medical  profession,  to 
keep  alive  and  in  health,  argues  an  almost  criminal  ignorance 
of  the  laws  of  health,  and  racial  indifference  to  the  easily 
acquired  means  of  preventing  sickness,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
insufficiency  of  material  remedies,  upon  which  dependence  is 
placed  for  relief.  Of  the  vast  number  who  die  annually,  the 
majority  doubtless  used  every  possible  means  to  avert  death, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  have  been  taught  by  priest 
and  doctor  alike,  that  sickness  is  legitimate,  the  natural  con- 
comitant of  one's  earthly  existence,  the  result  of  the  operation 
of  natural  laws  and  therefore  ordained  of  God,  that  it  has  its 
uses,  that  men  die  when  their  time  comes  and  that  humanity 
consequently  has  no  alternative  but  to  reconcile  itself  to  an 
irresistible  doom  as  best  it  can. 

69 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  materialist,  the  medical  faculty 
and  the  clergy  even,  the  human  organism  in  case  of  sickness  is 
considered  and  treated  from  a  purely  physical  basis.  The 
organs  affected  are  deemed  material,  the  remedies  employed 
are  material  and  medical  procedures  are  based  on  that  presump- 
tion. Both  organs  and  medicine  are  regarded  as  physical  or 
material,  something  that  can  be  measured,  weighed  and  ana- 
lyzed. The  medicine  is  applied  to  the  affected  part  exteriorly 
or  introduced  into  the  system  through  the  blood,  which  itself 
is  material,  in  the  hope  that  through  its  action  changes  of  a 
favorable  character  will  be  made. 

How  matter  taken  into  the  system  is  able  to  reach  and 
affect  diseased  parts,  or  how  it  can  stimulate  or  energize  an  in- 
active organ;  how  to  determine  the  true  nature  of  the  disease 
or  how  to  bring  about  a  restoration  to  normal  conditions,  is 
purely  guess-work.  The  physician  has  little  or  no  true  knowl- 
edge or  understanding,  or,  at  least,  only  the  vaguest  sort  of 
theory  as  to  how  drugs  affect  the  system  or  overcome  disease. 
The  most  a  doctor  can  do  is  to  evolve  a  speculative  scheme  of 
medical  treatment  based  upon  assumptions  or  empirical  in- 
vestigations. So  far  as  any  exact  or  scientific  relation  between 
the  remedy  employed  and  the  cure  effected  in  any  given  case  is 
concerned,  it  is  simply  impossible  to  work  out  a  satisfactory 
modus  operandi.  The  effect  of  a  given  drug  in  a  given  case  is 
indeterminate;  results  vary  with  the  patient.  Drugs  effective 
in  one  period  of  medical  practice  lose  their  power  and  in  an- 
other period  are  either  discarded  or  replaced  with  some  other 
material. 

When  medical  aid  fails  to  produce  the  desired  results,  the 
physician  as  a  last  resort  falls  back  upon  what  is  frequently 
termed  "vis  medicatrix  naturae,"  the  recuperative  energy  of 
nature.  Why  not  resort  to  this  in  the  first  place?  Would  it 
not  sound  less  scientific  ?  Ah !  would  it  not  mean  the  highway 
to  the  physician's  vanishing  point? 

70 


INSUFFICIENCY  OF  MATERIAL  REMEDIES 

The  physician,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  is  something  better  than 
a  carpenter-tinker  of  the  human  body.  •  The  human  organism 
is  something  more  than  a  house;  it  is  a  machine.  While  the 
body  as  to  its  physical  constituents  may  be  weighed,  and  meas- 
ured, and  analyzed,  nevertheless,  it  pulses  with  life  which  can- 
not be  analyzed  and  which  no  physician  has  ever  seen.  It  bears 
small  comparison  to  an  inanimate  structure  which  can  be 
fashioned  by  human  hands.  A  carpenter  can  build  a  house,  but 
he  cannot  give  it  a  personal  identity,  nor  collect  his  bill  if  the 
house  has  no  owner.  He  would  make  poor  work  trying  to 
tinker  the  mechanism  of  the  human  body  with  tools  unfitted  to 
his  task,  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  man  is  a  sentient  being, 
that  the  body  has  a  life  which  has  eluded  the  keenest  search. 

The  medical  man  may  probe  and  cut  and  carve  the  human 
body  with  instruments  of  surgery,  but  he  cannot  suppress  the 
fact  that  the  functions  of  the  body  which  he  thus  handles  are 
dependent  upon  the  tenant  within.  When  the  body  is  left  by 
its  occupant  all  the  doctor  can  do  is  to  make  a  post  mortem 
examination.  Its  usefulness  is  gone;  by  no  sleight-of-hand  can 
he  restore  the  old  or  provide  a  new  tenant. 

Materia  medica  considers  man  a  physical  being.  It  is  not 
merely  non-Christian ;  it  is  non-religious.  Its  literature  is  mate- 
rialistic, its  members  may  be  atheists  and  still  be  in  good  pro- 
fessional standing.  Its  materialistic  practice  proceeds  from  the 
theory  that  the  physical  organism  when  out  of  order  is  to  be  re- 
paired by  the  administration  of  medicine  in  various  forms  of 
mindless,  inert  matter.  Overlooking  the  greatest  factor  in  the 
universe,  the  fact  that  man  can  actually  assume  command  of 
his  own  mysterious  mechanism,  materia  medica  vainly  seeks  by 
the  use  of  drugs  to  stay  the  ravages  of  diseases  due  in  the 
main  to  wrong  functioning  of  the  mind  upon  the  body  or,  to 
put  it  in  another  form,  it  fails  to  give  full  significance  to  the 
superiority  of  the  creative  mind  over  the  material  organism  of 
the  creature  or  thing  created.    Medicine,  with  its  bacteriology 

71 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

and  serum  therapy,  its  Roentgen  rays  and  its  organic  chemistry, 
takes  Httle  note  of  the  subtle  relations  between  body  and  spirit, 
those  wide  realms  in  which  the  mind  directly  and  powerfully 
affects  the  physical  organism. 

Dr.  Lewis  stoutly  insists  that  the  business  of  the  physician 
is  to  treat  the  body.  To  follow  his  advice  is  to  ignore  its 
occupant.  Is  it  small  wonder,  therefore,  that  a  materialistic 
profession,  which  can  rise  to  no  more  than  carpentering  or 
body  tinkering,  should  find  its  material  remedies  so  insufficient 
and  inefficient  as  a  means  of  staying  the  progress  of  disease. 
Serious  attention  may  well  be  directed  to  these  significant 
words  of  the  eminent  English  scientist,  Sir  OHver  Lodge: 
*The  more  frankly  and  clearly  the  truth  about  the  body  is 
realized,  namely  that  the  body  is  a  flowing  and  constantly 
changing  episode  in  material  history,  having  no  more  identity 
than  has  a  river,  no  identity  whatever  in  its  material  constitu- 
tion, but  only  in  its  form — identity  only  in  the  personal  ex- 
pression or  manifestation  which  is  achieved  through  the  agency 
of  fresh  and  constantly  differing  sequence  of  material  particles 
— ^the  more  frankly  this  is  realized  the  better  for  our  under- 
standing of  most  of  the  problems  of  life  and  being."  And, 
we  may  add,  those  of  materia  medica.  Still,  while  the  body 
lasts  it  is  most  beautiful  and  useful  and  wonderful. 

The  following  question  propounded  by  Sir  Oliver  is  one 
which  may  properly  be  referred  to  the  medical  profession  for 
answer : 

"What  is  it  that  puts  the  body  together  and  keeps  it  active 
and  retains  it  fairly  constant  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
climate,  and  condition,  and  through  all  the  fluctuations  of  ma- 
terial constitution?" 

Notwithstanding  that  mental  healing  has  demonstrated  its 
successful  ministry  to  the  physical  ills  of  mankind,  authorities 
such  as  Dr.  Lewis,  Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson  and  Dr.  Darlington, 
and  other  prominent  authorities,  still  remain  solidly  materialis- 
tic in  their  professional  work. 

72 


INSUFFICIENCY  OF  MATERIAL  REMEDIES 

The  theory  at  the  base  of  mental  therapeutics,  viz. :  that 
the  body  is  under  the  control  of  the  mind,  Dr.  Woods  Hutchin- 
son combats  vigorously  in  a  recent  magazine  article,  in  which 
he  declares  it  to  be  "one  of  the  dearest  delusions  of  man,"  and 
stoutly  insists  that  man's  most  permanent  control  over  his  mind 
is  obtainable  by  the  modification  of  a  bodily  condition.  "The 
field  in  which  we  modify  bodily  conditions  by  mental  influ- 
ences," he  claims,  "is  steadily  shrinking;  all  our  substantial 
and  permanent  victories  over  bodily  ills  have  been  won  by  phy- 
sical means."  Dr.  Hutchinson  goes  even  further  and  asserts 
that  a  large  majority  of  the  triumphs  of  science  over  mental 
and  moral  diseases  have  been  secured  through  physical  agencies 
alone. 

On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  Sheldon  Leavitt  finds  occasion  to 
criticise  rather  sharply  this  pronounced  materialism.  The 
medical  profession,  he  insists,  is  skimming  the  mere  borders 
of  the  curative  problem.  "It  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  mate- 
rialistic thought.  To  the  man  of  surgery  and  drugs,  of  mas- 
sage and  electricity,  of  vibration  and  light  therapy,  the  brain 
is  not  the  organ  of  the  mind,  but  it  is  the  mind  itself,  and 
thought  is  due  to  the  cellular  action.  To  him  subconsciousness 
is  only  a  realm  of  reflex  phenomena.  That  there  are  other  than 
the  five  senses,  he  denies.  He  pauses  at  the  border  of  the 
physical  realm  to  assert,  'here  it  all  ends.'  " 

Medical  science  is  acknowledged  to  be  an  empirical  and  not 
an  exact  science.  A  physician  gives  what  he  has  frequently 
followed  in  other  cases  by  a  cessation  of  the  disease,  and  this 
in  most  instances  is  a  matter  of  experimentation  rather  than  of 
certainty. 

When  medical  skill  has  been  exhausted  and  the  patient  dies, 
we  are  taught  to  believe  that  the  result  must  be  accepted  as  the 
operation  of  natural  laws  following  the  primal  order  of  nature, 
the  patient  reconciling  himself  to  his  own  demise,  whether  pre- 
maturely or  otherwise,  on  the  principle  that  it  cannot  be  helped, 

7a 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  physician  consoling  himself  from  his  standpoint  with  the 
reflection  that  all  known  means  have  been  used,  and  that  un- 
less he  has  failed  in  his  duty,  "the  confidence  of  his  intelligent 
patient  will  not  be  destroyed." 

So  far  as  the  medical  profession  itself  is  concerned,  there 
is  no  finer  body  of  men  to  be  found  anywhere.  No  men  as  a 
class  are  more  willing  to  serve  humanity  or  more  ready  to  put 
aside  personal  aggrandizement  in  an  almost  passionate  devo- 
tion and  consecration  to  the  task  of  alleviating  the  physical  ills 
of  mankind.  Any  hour  of  the  twenty-four  is  the  hour  of  duty 
.  to  the  faithful,  conscientious  physician.  It  makes  no  differ- 
ence whether  the  patient  be  rich  or  poor;  whether  the  doctor 
gets  five  hours'  sleep  during  the  night  or  none  at  all;  the  call 
for  help  is  answered  just  the  same.  Nor  is  there  a  more  stu- 
dious body  of  men  to  be  found  in  any  profession.  In  research 
and  experimentation,  in  studies  in  bacteriology  and  pathology, 
in  the  laboratory,  in  practical  experience  with  disease,  there  is 
an  earnest  concentration  of  endeavor  on  the  part  of  the  med- 
ical scientist  to  ascertain  the  source  of  physical  maladies,  and 
to  employ  the  remedies  that  will  effect  a  cure  and  thus  stay  the 
ravages  of  disease.  In  the  clinic,  in  hospital  ward,  are  to  be 
found  heroes  who  knowingly  face  death  through  contagion 
that  they  may,  perchance,  discover  a  way  to  overthrow  a  dread 
disease,  to  add  to  the  knowledge  of  the  profession  concerning 
the  nature  and  the  methods  that  will  most  expeditiously  stay 
its  ravages. 

Nevertheless,  disease  and  death  continue  their  work  with 
increasing  effectiveness,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  bat- 
tle against  it  is  vigorously  waged.  The  struggle  begins  with 
birth  and  ends  only  when  death  closes  the  mortal  career  of  the 
patient;  and  the  pitiful  thing  is,  it  is  always  a  losing  fight — 
diseases  multiply,  death  intervenes  despite  all  the  doctors 
can  do. 

However    brilliant    the    achievements,    however    high    the 

74 


INSUFFICIENCY  OF  MATERIAL  REMEDIES 

attainments,  however  eminent  the  services  of  the  medical 
profession  to  suffering  humanity,  however  energetic,  self-sac- 
rificing and  faithful  physicians  are  or  may  have  been,  the 
painful  fact  remains  that  half  the  number  of  people  who  die 
every  year  die  "prematurely."  This  result  cannot  be  attribu- 
ted to  lack  of  strenuous  endeavor  on  the  doctor's  part ;  it  must 
be  ascribed  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  material  remedies 
employed. 

The  conflicting  methods  of  treatment  in  the  different 
schools  of  medicine  and  the  lack  of  unity  among  physicians  of 
the  same  school  prove  that  these  systems  are  not  founded  upon 
exact  science  or  fixed  principle,  and  because  of  this  people  are 
seeking  for  something  more  reliable  in  their  hour  of  need. 
Public  opinion  is  changing,  and  the  physician  is  no  longer  the 
court  of  last  resort  in  the  matter  of  human  health. 


if§ 


IX. 

ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CLERGY  TOWARDS  CHRISTIAN 
HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

THE  Rev.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  in  his  book  "Does  God 
Send  Trouble?"  vigorously  controverts  the  conception  or 
orthodox  belief  that  sickness  and  death  are  the  will  of  God. 
He  makes  this  significant  statement :  *T  have  laboriously  and 
freshly  examined  every  single  passage  in  the  New  Testament 
bearing  upon  the  subject  of  God's  will,  and  I  have  also  exam- 
ined freshly  every  single  passage  in  the  New  Testament  bearing 
upon  suffering  and  affliction.  I  fail  to  find  one  which  warrants 
the  belief  that  sickness  and  death  are  the  will  of  God,  sent 
directly  by  His  hand  upon  us.  If  sickness  and  suffering  are 
according  to  the  will  of  God,  then  every  physician  is  a  law- 
breaker, every  trained  nurse  is  defying  the  will  of  God,  every 
hospital  is  a  house  of  rebellion  instead  of  a  house  of  mercy. 
All  the  conditions  which  increase  suffering  and  breed  sickness 
are  therefore  fulfillments  of  the  will  of  God,  and  sanitation  is 
blasphemy.  This  tradition  quickly  reasons  itself  out  into  im- 
possibility. The  only  absolutely  logical  holders  of  it  are  those 
who  accepting  God's  will,  refuse  to  employ  medical  aid  for 
their  sick  children  and  the  civil  law  has  now  made  that  refusal 
a  crime." 

The  conclusion  that  God  either  sends  the  pain,  suffering  and 
sin,  or  that,  being  a  witness  of  the  untold  agonies  of  His 
children.  He  refuses  to  alleviate  this  suffering,  presents  the 
spectacle  of  the  source  of  all  good  creating  His  own  opposites, 
of  good  creating  evil,  a  divine  paradox  insulting  as  well  as  re- 
volting to  our  intelligence.    As  to  His  sending  misery  as  a  pun- 

76 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CLERGY 

ishment  for  certain  misdeeds,  it  is  the  weakest  argument  of  all. 
What  could  one  think  of  a  human  father  who  would  calmly 
watch  the  speechless  agony  of  his  loved  ones  without  a  thought 
to  help  them  ?  Such  callousness  on  the  part  of  the  God  who  is 
love  is  beyond  comprehension.  But  if,  for  argument's  sake,  we 
assume  that  God  sent  sickness  into  the  world  as  chastisement, 
what  right  has  the  physician  to  oppose  the  will  of  God  ? 

Humanity  has  not  hesitated  to  grasp  at  every  possible 
means  it  could  imagine  or  devise  to  avert  death  or  delay  its 
approach.  The  physician,  the  legislator,  the  workers  in  our 
various  philanthropic  enterprises  have  all  labored  to  this  end. 
The  vast  array  of  asylums,  the  life-saving  stations,  the  protec- 
tion of  those  engaged  in  hazardous  occupations,  are  so  many 
endeavors  on  the  part  of  mankind  to  circumvent  death.  All 
this  would  constitute  officious  interference  with  God's  plan  if 
God  had  instituted  death  as  the  gateway  to  heaven;  and  it 
would  keep  millions  out  of  heaven  in  consequence. 

The  materialistic  attitude  of  the  church  towards  Christian 
healing  is  fairly  well  expressed  by  Rev.  Dr.  Buckley,  editor  of 
the  Christian  Advocate,  the  official  organ  of  the  Methodist 
Church : 

"When  a  thoroughly  educated,  experienced  and  competent 
physician  or  surgeon  fails  to  preserve  the  life  of  a  non-resist- 
ing and  co-operating  patient,  he  has  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
case  all  that  the  human  race  has  accumulated  of  knowledge, 
remedies,  appliances,  supports  and  hygienic  methods,  and  in 
this  case,  they,  and  not  he  alone,  have  failed." 

Dr.  Buckley,  however,  finds  some  hope  for  humanity  in  the 
fact  that  millions  of  the  common  people  and  of  those  in  frontier 
and  scattered  regions,  in  shipwreck,  in  time  of  war,  and  pes- 
tilence, have  been  able  to  ward  off  disease  or  recover  from  its 
effects,  without  medical  aid ;  the  ''vis  medicatrix  naturae" 
bringing  them  through ;  all  of  which  is  strikingly  suggestive  of 
a  saying  of  Dr.  Mason  Good,  a  learned  professor  in  London: 
"The  effects  of  medicine  on  the  human  system  are  in  the  high- 

77 


ALTAR    FIRES   RELIGHTED 

«st  degree  uncertain ;  except,  indeed,  that  it  has  already  de- 
stroyed more  Hves  than  war,  pestilence  and  famine  combined." 

The  opinion  of  the  clergy,  in  the  main,  is  that  the  practice 
of  medicine  should  be  left  to  those  who  have  made  the  diagno- 
sis and  treatment  of  disease  their  life  study  and  profession. 
The  duty  of  the  clergy  we  are  told  is  to  sympathize  in  sorrow, 
and  in  joy,  and  to  help  in  the  bearing  of  burdens,  to  cheer, 
comfort,  strengthen  and  reinforce  every  effort  put  forth  by 
the  medical  profession  to  deliver  the  sufferer  from  physical  ail- 
ments. 

The  acknowledgment  is  made  that  God  has  almighty  power ; 
that  He  is  a  very  present  help  in  time  of  trouble — but  in  case 
of  sickness,  the  Christian  is  told  to  rely  upon  drugs,  as  if 
senseless  matter  has  more  power  than  omnipotent  Spirit. 
According  to  the  accepted  clerical  construction,  the  true  func- 
tion of  the  ministry,  as  under  shepherds  of  the  church,  is  to 
teach  the  ethical  and  spiritual  doctrines  of  Christianity.  All 
else  the  pastor  should  leave  to  the  physician,  even  though  the 
medical  profession  is  solidly  materialistic  and  pays  little  or  no 
attention  to  anything  outside  of  physical  structure.  In  this  re- 
spect Dr.  Buckley  is  in  accord  with  Dr.  Aked,  who  declares  that 
Christianity  is  purely  ethical,  its  object  being  to  make  good  men 
and  women  of  us  all. 

The  attitude  of  the  clergy  towards  Jesus'  healing  works  is 
variously  expressed.  Many  clergymen  contend  that  Jesus  did 
not  institute  miraculous  (so-called)  healing  as  a  continuous 
system.  Other  clergymen  claim  that  Christian  healing  be- 
longed to  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  that  this  power 
was  supernatural  and  was  meant  to  be  confined  to  the  apostolic 
period,  a  conclusion  which  it  is  claimed  "the  verdict  of  history" 
confirms,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  on  two  occasions,  Christ 
Jesus,  speaking  not  to  the  disciples,  but  for  all  time,  declared 
that  those  who  believe  on  Him  would  be  able  to  do  the  works 
that  He  did  by  the  Spirit  of  God.    "H  we  declare  that  the  age 

f8 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CLERGY 

of  miracles  is  past,"  asks  a  recent  writer,  "when  by  miracles 
we  mean  the  works  and  acts  of  God,  what  are  we  doing?  We 
are  rejecting  the  all-power,  the  all-presence,  the  all-knowledge 
and  unchangeableness  of  God,  repudiating  and  denying  His 
Christ  and  so  shattering  the  very  foundations  of  our  boasted 
Christianity." 

Dr.  Robert  McDonald  declared  that  the  healing  of  the  sick 
must  be  made  a  regular,  recognized  department  of  the  church 
work;  nevertheless  we  find  in  his  book  "Mind,  Religion  and 
Health,"  this  astonishing  statement,  which  throws  cold  water 
on  the  whole  proposition :  "It  is  a  very  serious  question  as  to 
how  deep  and  far-reaching  a  diseased  condition  in  the  human 
body  can  be  divinely  restored  to  health."  This  question,  he 
declares,  "may  be  for  long  an  open  question,  with  intelligent 
advocates  on  either  side  of  the  tremendous  issue."  This  is 
paralleled  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Leighton  Parks,  who  refers  to  the 
case  of  the  apostle  Paul,  who  sought  relief  from  what  this  dis- 
tinguished clergyman  terms  an  incurable  disease.  According 
to  Dr.  Parks,  the  best  that  God  could  do  under  the  circum- 
stances was  to  supply  sustaining  grace,  thus  limiting  Omnipo- 
tence and  placing  God  in  the  humiliating  position  of  inability  to 
rectify  those  abnormal  physical  conditions  which  medical 
science  in  its  wisdom  (?)  has  pronounced  incurable.  That 
we  may  not  do  Dr.  Parks  an  injustice,  we  quote  the  passage  as 
found  in  his  address  in  St.  Bartholomew's  church,  delivered 
some  months  ago : 

"Paul's  experience  deserves  much  study  nowadays.  For 
this  thing — this  thorn  in  the  flesh — *I  besought  the  Lord  thrice, 
that  it  might  depart  from  me :'  And  he  said,  *My  grace  is  suf- 
ficient for  thee ;  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness.' 
This,  stated  in  modern  language,  means  that  Paul  had  an  in- 
curable disease,  but  that  God's  power  would  uphold  him  until 
his  work  was  done." 

In   general   terms,   these  distinguished  expounders  of  the 

79 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

healing  gospel  of  Christ  believe  in  the  almighty  power  of  God 
as  taught  by  the  creeds  of  the  church;  in  a  Supreme  Being 
with  whom  all  things  are  possible,  and  "who  sent  His  word 
and  healed" ;  but  they  seem  disposed  to  limit  His  healing  ability 
and  to  regard  Omnipotence  as  powerless  on  occasions — as,  for 
instance,  the  so-called  incurable  diseases  of  the  medical  schools. 

It  would  be  no  less  irrational  to  think  that  God  could  con- 
nive at  wickedness  as  that  it  would  be  to  think  that  law  could 
be  guilty  of  crime,  or  that  sickness,  like  evil  in  the  vulgar  jest  in 
the  play,  "might  be  offensive,  but  blended  with  the  whole  it 
heightened  the  general  effect;  that  it  was  here  to  train  char- 
acter and  to  be  finally  transmuted  into  good."^ 

In  the  present  theological  conception  of  the  status  of  evil, 
this  may  be  taken  as  something  more  than  a  jest;  it  amounts 
in  fact  to  an  affirmation  that  there  are  limits  to  divine  power 
which  could  as  little  keep  men  free  from  moral  evil  as  from 
physical  disease.  "When  one  recalls,"  says  John  B.  Willis,  "the 
part  which  the  belief  of  evil  has  played  in  the  tragedy  of  mortal 
experience  and  the  universal  longing  to  escape  the  suffering, 
which  always  attends  its  reign,  it  is  not  difficult  to  accept  the 
statement  that  in  the  course  of  human  history  more  sacrifices 
have  probably  been  made  and  more  prayers  offered  to  the  devil 
than  to  God." 

"The  healing  work  of  the  church  in  the  early  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era,"  says  Dr.  Ellwood  Worcester,  "had  a  most 
powerful  influence  on  church  life  and  custom  and  was  an  in- 
fluential factor  in  the  Christian  propaganda.  One  cause  of  the 
present  weakness  of  the  church  is  that  it  has  maintained  the 
Christian  religion,  retaining  with  some  degree  of  faith  Christ's 
message  to  the  soul,  but  rejecting  with  unbelief  His  ministry 
to  the  body."  And  he  adds,  in  a  fine  burst  of  enthusiasm: 
"Armed  with  the  resources  of  modern  science,  and  especially 
of  modern  psychological  science"  [presumably  hypnotism, 
hypnotic  suggestion  and  psychic  influence]  "inspired  with  the 

'"Marcus  Aurelius,"  VI-42. 

80 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CLERGY 

enthusiasm  of  humanity"  [which  he  considers  the  grand  legacy 
bequeathed  to  the  church  by  the  founders  of  the  faith]  "the 
church  to-day  should  be  able  to  outdo  the  healing  wonders  of 
the  apostolic  and  post-apostolic  ages." 

On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Buckley  regards  this  as  an  amazing 
utterence,  and  questions  whether  it  is  the  fruit  of  an  intense 
faith  or  a  fevered  imagination.  Dr.  Worcester  is  a  step  in 
advance  of  his  clerical  brethren  on  the  subject  of  healing.  The 
Emmanuel  clinic,  of  which  he  is  the  founder,  is  an  attempted 
combination  of  the  clerical  and  the  medical  professions;  an 
effort  to  divide  up  the  practice  of  the  healing  art,  organic  dis- 
ease to  be  taken  care  of  by  the  physicians  and  functional  dis- 
orders by  the  Emmanuel  clinic. 

Any  attempt  to  regain  the  lost  element  of  healing  and  to 
aid  the  church  fulfil  its  mission  to  both  body  and  soul,  or,  in 
other  words,  to  make  Christianity  what  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
a  response  to  the  physical  as  well  as  the  spiritual  needs  of 
humanity,  is  worthy  of  all  commendation.  But  why  circum- 
scribe the  Holy  One  of  Israel  through  unbelief?  Why  sub- 
stitute hypnotic  suggestion  for  Jesus'  divine  therapeutics? 
Why  limit  the  healing  power  of  the  gospel  to  functional  dis- 
eases on  the  theory  that  these  can  be  successfully  handled  by 
psycho-therapeutic  procedures,  conducted  upon  a  so-called 
purely  scientific  basis,  with  religion  as  a  side  attachment?  Is 
humanity  to  join  with  John  Stuart  Mill  and  conclude  that  "on 
the  whole  God  is  benevolently  inclined,  but  is  thwarted  in  His 
purpose"  ?  Is  it  to  consider  matter  as  a  power  in  and  of  itself 
and  thus  leave  the  Creator  out  of  His  own  universe?  Or  is 
it  to  regard  God  as  the  creator  of  matter,  and  thus  not  only 
hold  Him  accountable  for  all  physical  and  moral  disasters,  but 
declare  Him  as  the  source  of  such  calamities,  and  thus  con- 
vict Him  of  establishing  and  maintaining  perpetual  misrule 
under  the  guise  of  natural  law? 


U 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

11. 

The  church,  although  commissioned  by  its  founder  to  heal 
the  sick  by  spiritual  means,  is  faithless  to  its  trust.  It  is  still 
in  the  position  of  having  relegated  that  work  to  a  solidly  mate- 
rialistic medical  profession,  more  or  less  atheistic.  Jesus'  heal- 
ing ministry  is  admitted ;  likewise  the  healing  power  which  He 
conferred  upon  the  disciples,  but  the  church  has  without  just 
warrant  restricted  this  healing  function  to  the  church  of  Apos- 
tolic days.  And  this  is  its  answer  to  the  sick  and  suflfering 
who  look  to  it  for  the  exercise  of  the  healing  power  of  the 
Gospel,  unless  we  except  the  Emmanuel  clinic  and  its  offer  of 
animal  magnetism  or  hypnotism  as  a  substitute  for  Christ's 
divine  therapeutics.  The  unbelief  of  the  clergy  of  the  present 
day  as  to  the  present  possibility  of  Christian  healing  is  not 
less  pronounced  than  the  unbelief  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy  and 
of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in  Jesus'  time.  Small  wonder 
that  so-called  orthodox  Christianity  is  decadent  when  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel,  who  assert  belief  in  the  omnipotence  of  God 
and  are  commissioned  to  preach  the  healing  gospel  of  the 
Christ,  and  to  do  even  greater  works  of  healing  than  Jesus 
did,  profess  to  find  a  tremendous  issue  in  the  question  as  to 
how  far-reaching  a  diseased  condition  in  the  human  body  can 
be  divinely  restored  to  health! 

The  Scribes  declared  that  Jesus  had  a  devil  and  cast  out 
devils  by  the  prince  of  devils.  That  He  should  profess  to  cast 
them  out  by  the  Spirit  of  God  was  to  them  sheer  blasphemy. 
Because  He  said  that  God  was  His  Father  they  sought  to  slay 
Him.  They  complained  that  He  not  only  received  sinners  and 
ate  with  them,  but  that  He  was  a  friend  to  both  publicans  and 
sinners.  When  they  could  not  disprove  His  cures,  they  said 
He  was  not  of  God  because  He  healed  on  the  Sabbath  day; 
that  He  was  a  sinner,  a  Samaritan,  a  glutton,  a  wine  bibber  and 
a  deceiver  of  the  people. 

Similar  scepticism  and  opposition  prevail  to-day  among  the 

82 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CLERGY 

clergy  in  reference  to  the  present  availability  of  healing  by  the 
power  of  the  divine  Mind  or  the  Spirit  of  God.  One  of  the 
greatest  hindrances  to  Christian  healing  is  the  efforts  of  the 
ministers  to  discount,  limit,  and  explain  away  the  healing  pro- 
mise and  power  of  the  word  of  God  as  contained  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  revelation  of  God  as  an  active  healing  pres- 
ence in  the  world  is  Jesus'  gospel,  and  no  man  can  apprehend 
and  preach  that  gospel  without  preaching  it  as  a  healing  gospel. 
The  failure  to  do  so  weakens  the  faith  of  the  people  in  its 
healing  efficacy,  creates  an  atmosphere  of  doubt  and  antag- 
onism and  drives  thousands  to  medicine,  surgery  or  hypnotic 
suggestion  for  which  no  authority  obtains  in  Jesus'  statement : 
"The  Father  that  dwelleth  in  Me,  He  doeth  the  works."  Jesus 
placed  no  limitation  upon  his  healing  ability  or  that  of  His 
disciples  who  acquired  the  same  power.  "All  power  is  given 
Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth." 

The  Rev.  Charles  F.  Aked  closes  a  brilliant  series  of  articles 
on  the  "Salvation  of  Christianity"  with  these  words:  "The 
truth  which  Jesus  taught  is  fresh  with  the  eternal  youthfulness 
of  God.  In  the  acceptance  of  it  and  the  appropriation  of  it  and 
the  application  of  it,  to  the  necessity  of  our  time,  lies  the  sal- 
vation of  Christianity  and  the  hope  of  the  world. "^  And 
fresh  with  the  eternal  youthfulness  of  God,  are  the  words  the 
Great  Teacher  uttered  in  those  solemn  hours  when  His  earthly 
ministry  was  finished  and  He  was  about  to  say  farewell  to  His 
followers :  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach,  saying,  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the 
lepers,  raise  the  dead,  cast  out  devils ;  freely  ye  have  received, 
freely  give." 

The  truth  which  Jesus  proclaimed  covered  spiritual  and 
physical  needs  alike.  His  healing  ministry  to  suffering  human- 
ity, burdened  by  sin  and  disease,  demonstrated  God's  power  to 
meet  every  human  need  in  sickness  and  in  health.    This  heal- 

'^Appleton's  Magazine. 

83 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

ing  ministry  Jesus  committed  to  His  followers  for  all  time. 
And  in  the  acceptance  of  this  gospel  with  its  healing  message, 
in  its  appropriation  and  application  to  human  need,  is  to  be 
found  the  deliverance  of  the  race  from  bondage  to  disease  and 
death.  The  question,  therefore,  may  well  be  raised,  ''Shall 
Christianity  continue  recreant  to  its  trust,  and  are  other 
hands  to  take  up  and  carry  forward  Jesus'  healing  mission  to 
humanity  ?" 

Attitude  Toward  Christian  Science 

The  attitude  the  clergy  assume  towards  Christian  healing 
makes  perfectly  intelligible  their  attitude  towards  Chris- 
tian Science.  The  natural  tendency  of  that  movement  is  to 
weaken  the  standing  and  influence  of  the  clergy  as  a  class  or 
profession.  The  teachings  of  orthodox  preachers  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Christian  healing,  when  contrasted  with  the  healing 
work  actually  accomplished  by  Christian  Science  practitioners 
through  spiritual  means,  is  constantly  impressing  the  inconsist- 
ency of  their  position  upon  the  minds  of  people  generally.  On 
top  of  this  fact  is  another  fact  which  explains  why  the  clergy 
are  so  bitter  in  their  denunciations  of  Christian  Science.  One 
of  the  teachings  of  Christian  Science  is  that  no  clerical  inter- 
mediaries are  necessary  in  the  transmission  of  prayer  from  man 
to  God.  It  has  in  fact  no  use  for  theological  middlemen,  either 
to  offer  formal  and  lengthy  prayers  or  to  deliver  elaborate  ora- 
tions on  religious  topics  at  its  Sunday  services.  Its  teaching 
and  practice  obviously  strikes  a  blow  at  all  clerical  occupants 
and  threatens  to  do  away  entirely  in  time  with  their  calling. 

The  priesthood  and  the  ministerial  class  have  the  keenest 
realization  of  this,  and  while  they  think  themselves  perfectly 
honest  in  taking  a  trenchant  stand  against  Christian  Science,  it 
is  believed  to  be  an  undoubted  fact  that  they  are  either  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  influenced  by  the  economic  aspect 
which  attends  the  loss  of  members  due  to  the  spread  of  the 

84 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CLERGY 

Christian  Science  movement  and  by  irritation  at  the  increasing 
weakness  of  their  hold  upon  the  people. 

The  consequence  of  this  decline  in  power  is  better  seen  in 
England  than  here.  There  the  Episcopal  Church  is  a  state  in- 
stitution and  has  certain  notable  legal  powers.  It  is  more  than 
bitterly  fighting  the  Christian  Science  movement.  Not  only 
is  it  denouncing  Christian  Science,  but  it  is  using  its  whole 
power  to  suppress  as  much  as  possible  this  movement  which 
presents  the  results  Jesus  declared  characterize  an  understand- 
ing of  His  teachings.  One  of  the  many  weapons  of  warfare 
the  church  uses  is  in  the  influencing  of  newspapers  and  period- 
icals against  publishing  Christian  Science  communications. 

In  America,  where  church  and  state  are  separate,  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  orthodox  churches  is  not  so  compact  or  central- 
ized. But  it  is  nevertheless  active.  Each  theological  body  or 
each  separate  minister  proceeds  on  its  or  his  own  account. 

The  interests  of  the  ministerial  class  are  reflected  in  the 
prejudicial  stand  taken  by  the  religious  publications — that  is  to 
say,  the  periodicals  representing  some  particular  denomination. 
The  editors  of  these  publications  cannot  be  termed  deliberately 
dishonest,  in  the  sense  that  any  venal  motives  animate  them. 
But  that  they  are,  as  a  rule,  intellectually  dishonest  is  clear 
from  their  refusal  to  present  more  than  their  own  side  of  the 
controversy.  Of  course,  allowances  must  be  made  for  the  fact 
that  ministers  are  accustomed  to  stating  their  views  dogmat- 
ically and  without  chance  of  contradiction  from  the  pulpit. 
This  ex  cathedra  habit  becomes  second  nature.  Viewing  the 
question  in  a  large  way,  however,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  real 
explanation  at  the  basis  for  the  virulence  of  some  of  these  de- 
nominational periodicals  is  one  arising  from  the  conscious 
knowledge  of  the  decay  of  the  orthodox  churches  and  the  ad- 
vent of  a  new  order  wherein  the  ministerial  class  once  so  pow- 
erful will  either  be  greatly  subordinated  or  gradually  pass  out 
of  existence. 

85 


Part  2 


"And  so  the  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  holiness  of  perfect  deeds, 

More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought" 


"Think  of  spiritual  results : 
Sure  as  the  earth  swims  through  the  heavens,  does 
Every  one  of  its  effects  pass  into  spiritual  results." 


I. 

JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  TRADITIONALISTS. 

I. 

IN  the  time  of  Jesus  there  were  two  classes  of  religionists, 
viz. :  the  priests  and  the  scribes,  each  having  a  traditional 
idea  of  the  religious  life.  In  the  eyes  of  the  priest  the  great 
factor  of  religion  was  the  Temple  with  its  worship  and  priest- 
hood. "In  the  temple  God  was  to  be  found ;  the  way  into  His 
presence  was  through  His  priests.  The  method  of  winning 
His  favor  or  obtaining  pardon  was  by  their  sacrifices.  The 
holy  man  was  the  man  who  came  often  to  the  Temple  and 
made  generous  use  of  its  priesthood,  places,  articles  and  modes 
of  worship.  Worship  conducted  by  authorized  persons  within 
the  sacred  place  and  in  the  established  way  became  the  very 
essence  of  religion,  and  the  priests  themselves  are  our  wit- 
nesses as  to  how  complete  their  ceremonial  had  swallowed  .up 
God's  moral  law."^ 

The  scribe  held  an  idea  which,  while  different  in  some  re- 
spects, was  akin  to  that  of  the  priests.  His  religion  was. made 
up  of  rules,  constituted  by  regulations  as  to  the  doing  and 
ordering  of  the  sensuous  things  of  Ufe.  He  laid  great  stress 
upon  fasts  and  alms  and  was  scrupulously  exact  in  the  ob- 
servance of  days,  months,  and  seasons,  times,  modes  of  prayer. 
He  found  great  merit  in  phylacteries  and  in  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures ;  he  was.  devoutly  loyal  to  the  written  law  formed  by 
ancient  custom ;  the  decisions  of  the  great  Synagogue  or  coun- 
cil of  the  church  and  the  wisdom  of  the  fathers  were  control- 
ling in  the  religious  life  which  he  Hved.  So  the  holy  man 
f 

^"Catholicism :   Roman  and  AngHcan,"  page  23. 

-89 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

forgot  no  sacred  day  or  solemn  time,  neglected  no  fast,  gave 
alms  of  all  he  had,  prayed  by  book,  worshipped  according  to 
rule,  and  otherwise  toiled  and  comported  himself  as  became  a 
man  who  lived  by  a  written  and  traditional  code.  They  were 
excellent  men;  honest,  scrupulous,  faithful  in  the  minutest 
things,  only  they  were  forgetful  of  the  deeper  fact  that  the 
kingdom  and  truth  of  God  is  infinitely  wider  than  their  law. 

Jesus  had  an  ideal  of  religion  which  was  in  sharp  antithesis 
to  that  of  both  priest  and  scribe,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  He 
was  unintelHgible  to  both  and  was  regarded  and  treated  by 
both  as  an  absolute  enemy.  "In  the  eyes  of  the  scribe  He  was 
a  religious  alien  standing  outside  the  community  and  catholicity 
of  Jewish  religion  and  doctrine;  in  the  eyes  of  the  priest,  He 
broke  the  unity  of  the  order  and  worship  established  of  old  by 
God,  consecrated  by  law  and  custom,  possessed  of  divine 
authority,  the  very  symbol  of  the  natural  life  and  condition  of 
the  people's  well-being.  When  He  visited  their  city  the  priests 
could  not  understand  him,  for  His  temple  and  worship  were 
spiritual.  His  God  was  a  Father  who  did  not  need  incense  and 
sacrifice  and  burnt-offerings  to  become  propitious  towards  men. 
And  so  men  knew  not  what  to  do  with  Him,  knew  only  how  to 
hate  Him  and  how  to  glut  their  hate  by  compassing  His  death 
on  the  cross  on  the  combined  charge  of  heresy  and  treason. 

"In  the  province  where  He  lived,  Jesus  met  the  Pharisees 
and  the  scribes,  whose  relations  to  Him  were  a  radical  contra- 
diction and  fretful  collision  proceeding  from  their  fanatical 
devotion  to  the  traditions  of  the  fathers  and  their  consequent 
inability  to  understand  His  spirit  and  His  truth.  In  His 
daily  and  familiar  life,  scribe  and  Pharisee  found  none  of  the 
customary  signs  of  religion — fasting,  alms,  the  phylactery, 
stated  forms,  times  and  places  for  prayer,  ceremonial  cleanli- 
ness, punctilious  observance  of  the  Sabbath  law  and  customs ; 
nay,  they  not  only  found  these  absent,  but  a  conduct  which 
seemed  studiously  to  offend — kindly  speech  to  Gentiles,  asso- 

90 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  TRADITIONALISTS 

ciation  with  publicans  and  sinners,  unheard-of  liberty  allowed 
to  his  disciples  and  claimed  for  himself  on  the  Sabbath. 

"And  the  right  to  do  all  this  he  vindicated  by  the  denial  of 
the  authority  of  tradition  and  the  elders  and  by  the  assertion  of 
his  own.  It  was  to  these  scrupulous  and  conscientious  men, 
all  very  sad,  even  awful;  and  so  they  judged  Him  a  profane 
person  acting  from  no  other  purpose  or  motive  than  to  destroy 
the  law  and  the  prophets."^ 

Because  they  thus  judged  Jesus,  the  scribes  and  priests  and 
Pharisees  pronounced  Him  a  blasphemer  and  declared  that  He 
was  possessed  of  a  devil  and  in  league  with  Beelzebub,  the 
Prince  of  the  Devils.  They  charged  Him  with  being  a  Sabbath 
breaker,  because  He  healed  sick  people  on  the  Sabbath.  They 
charged  His  disciples  with  violating  the  Sabbath,  because  they 
gathered  and  ate  ears  of  corn  on  that  day,  and  with  transgress- 
ing the  tradition  of  the  elders  because  they  ate  with  unwashed 
hands.  They  questioned  the  authority  Jesus  had  for  doing  His 
healing  works ;  sought  to  stone  Him  because  of  His  teachings, 
and  denied  His  claims  to  the  Messiahship.  Bigoted,  debauched, 
hypocritical  themselves,  they  nevertheless  called  Him  a  wine- 
bibber  and  a  glutton;  inveighed  against  Him  because  he  ate 
with  publicans  and  sinners  and  watched  Him  constantly  to  find 
occasion  whereby  they  might  deliver  Him  to  the  fKDwer  of  the 
governor. 

The  severest  invective  and  denunciation,  the  bitterest  terms 
of  reproach  and  rebuke,  the  sharpest  words  of  reproof,  "words 
that  burst  forth  from  His  heart  swelling  into  terrific  climax," 
Jesus  used  to  excoriate  these  self-made  scribes,  Pharisees  and 
priests,  betrayers  of  the  people.  The  most  terrible  woes  ever 
uttered  by  human  lips  Jesus  pronounced  against  these  greedy, 
self-seeking  religionists  and  traditionalists: 

"Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites!  for  ye 
shut  up  the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  men Woe^ 

^"Catholicism :    Roman  and  Anglican,"  page  26. 

91 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites!  for  ye  devour 
widows'  houses,  and  for  a  pretense  make  long  prayers ;  there- 
fore ye  shall  receive  the  greater  damnation.  Woe  unto  you, 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites !  for  ye  compass  sea  and  land 
to  make  one  proselyte ;  and  when  he  is  made,  ye  make  him  two- 
fold more  the  child  of  hell  than  yourselves.  Woe  unto  you,  ye 
blind  guides,  which  say,  whosoever  shall  swear  by  the  gold  of 

the  temple,  he  is  a  debtor ! Woe  unto  you  scribes  and 

Pharisees,  hypocrites!  for  ye  pay  tithe  of  mint  and  anise  and 
cumin,  and  have  omitted  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law — 
judgment,  mercy  and  faith.  Ye  blind  guides,  who  strain  at  a 
gnat  and  swallow  a  camel.  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  hypocrites!  for  ye  make  clean  the  outside  of  the 
cup  and  of  the  platter,  but  within  they  are  full  of  extortion  and 
excess.  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites !  for 
ye  are  like  unto  whited  sepulchres  which  indeed  appear  beauti- 
ful outward,  but  are  within  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  of  all 
uncleanness. 

"Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites !  because 
ye  build  the  tombs  of  the  prophets,  and  garnish  the  sepulchres 
of  the  righteous.  And  say,  if  we  had  been  in  the  days  of  our 
fathers  we  would  not  have  been  partakers  with  them  in  the 
blood  of  the  prophets.  Wherefore,  ye  be  witnesses  unto  your- 
selves, that  ye  are  the  children  of  them  which  killed  the 
prophets — Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  how  can  ye 
escape  the  damnation  of  hell?" 

Oppressed  by  conflicting  emotions,  which  now  arouse  and 
now  depress  Him,  foreseeing  His  rejection  at  their  hands  and 
the  tragic  fate  of  the  Jewish  nation,  Jesus  passed  from  right- 
eous denunciation  to  sorrowful  lament,  the  sadness  and  pathos 
of  which  has  not  ceased  echoing  through  the  ages :  "O  Jerusa- 
lem, Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets  and  stonest  them 
that  were  sent  unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under 
her  wing  and  ye  would  not.  Behold !  your  house  is  left  unto 
you  desolate." 

Jesus  stood  in  relation  to  His  times  as  a  social  and  religious 
reformer,  in  conflict  with  the  established  order.    His  teachings 

92 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  TRADITIONALISTS 

carried  to  their  legitimate  conclusion,  threatened  the  order  of 
the  Temple  and  the  doctrine  of  the  synagogue.  The  right  of 
the  priest  to  represent  God  and  rule  men  He  not  only  ques- 
tioned, but  denied,  and  so  in  the  eyes  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy 
He  assailed  the  very  foundations  of  society.  In  spite  of  Him- 
self He  became  a  political  personage.  The  people  were  aroused 
to  a  state  of  expectancy  because  of  the  mighty  works  He  did, 
and  were  ready  to  hail  Him  as  the  Messiah  of  Scripture.  His 
influence  over  the  populace  was  illustrated  and  intensified  by 
His  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem. 

In  strong  contrast  to  Jesus,  stands  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest, 
a  Sadducee,  an  aristocrat  in  family,  an  authority  in  the  state, 
"with  the  instincts  and  habits  of  the  ruler,  controlled  by  the 
mind  and  exercised  in  the  manner  of  the  ecclesiastic."  The 
head  of  the  Jewish  church,  he  was  the  most  masterful  spirit  in 
the  Jewish  council,  who  could  command  the  storm  aroused  by 
the  miracles  which  Jesus  performed,  especially  the  raising  of 
Lazarus  from  the  dead,  and  which  was  followed  by  Jesus'  entry 
into  Jerusalem  amid  the  acclaim  of  the  populace.  And  how  did 
Caiaphas  meet  the  issue  at  an  hour  when  the  safety  of  the 
Jewish  hierarchy,  the  national  religion,  and  the  nation  itself 
seemed  to  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin  to  be  at  stake? 

One  may  readily  imagine  this  high-born  ecclesiastic,  in  a 
tone  of  imperious  scorn,  declaring  the  safety  of  the  nation  to  be 
the  supreme  law  and  that  the  Sanhedrin  must  not  allow  it  to 
be  imperilled  by  the  frenzy  of  the  people,  which  was  but  a  tem- 
porary outburst  easily  kindled  and  readily  quenched.  To  smite 
the  Hero  of  the  Populace  would  be  to  still  the  popular  clamor. 
"For  consider  that  it  is  expedient  for  us  that  one  man  should 
die  for  the  people  and  that  the  whole  nation  perish  not."^ 

How  many  of  the  church  dignitaries  of  our  times,  men  of 
sagacious  intellect,  wise  in  all  manner  of  religious  statecraft 
and  high  in  the  councils  of  the  church,  had  they  been  members 

^John   1 1  :5o. 

93 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin,  would  have  opposed  the  condemna- 
tion and  death  of  Jesus  which  Caiaphas  advised  ?  Were  Jesus 
present  as  man  among  men  in  this  age  to  threaten  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  priesthood  of  the  Roman  CathoHc  Church  or  of  the 
ministerial  class  of  the  Protestant  churches,  or  the  overthrow 
of  cherished  church  dogmas  and  doctrines  and  traditions;  if 
His  teachings  meant  the  loss  of  power  and  influence  on  the 
part  of  ruling  religious  hierarchies  and  their  final  extinction; 
if  the  ecclesiastics  of  this  age  had  the  power  of  life  and  death 
as  did  the  constituted  church  authorities  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  would  they  do  less  than  the  Jewish  author- 
ities did  when  Jesus  was  present  among  them? 

Now,  when  so  few  pretend  to  believe  in  dogma  and  to  fol- 
low tradition,  when  creed  and  dogma  and  traditionalism  in  the 
church  are  fast  forcing  the  best  men  out,  and,  as  a  prominent 
theologian  has  well  said,  are  fast  making  the  church  "an  asylum 
for  drones  and  imbeciles,"  what  lesson  has  all  this  for  a  de- 
cadent Christianity  which  misinterprets  the  spirit  and  truth 
of  its  great  Founder  In  an  age  when  the  rich  are  in  the 
churches  and  nearly  all  the  poor  are  outside;  when  organized 
Christianity  has  no  message  for  the  common  people,  no  vision 
of  social  justice,  no  faith  in  the  healing  gospel  of  Christ,  is  it 
any  wonder  that  the  church  is  fast  losing  its  power  to  maintain 
the  allegiance  of  its  followers  ?  Do  not  the  religious  radicalism 
and  conservatism  of  to-day  find  their  suggestion  in  the  Sad- 
ducee  and  the  Pharisee  of  Jesus*  time? 

"The  Christian  church,"  says  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon,  "has 
never  laid  this  truth  to  heart,  indeed  it  may  be  said  that  the 
church  has  never  seen  it.  It  was  against  a  flippant  heterodoxy 
that  Jesus  spoke  his  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan;  it  was 
against  the  pride  and  inhumanity  of  the  same  class  that  the 
Master  made  his  defense  of  his  interest  in  publicans  and  sin- 
ners, in  the  parables  of  the  lost  sheep,  the  lost  drachma,  and  the 
lost  son.    The  peril  of  current  liberalism  is  great;  the  peril  is 

94 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  TRADITIONALISTS 

vastly  greater  of  a  morally  obtuse  and  consequential  conserva- 
tism, confident  that  it  holds  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth." 

Would  Jesus  Christ,  if  He  were  personally  present  in  this 
age,  love  tradition  any  more  than  He  did  centuries  ago?  Would 
He  less  fearlessly  denounce  religious  hypocrisy?  Would  He 
be  less  ready  to  warn  His  followers  against  greed  and  avarice, 
or  wealth  allied  with  selfishness,  pride  and  inhumanity?  Would 
He  hesitate  to  whip  tyranny,  pride  and  vain  traffic  in  worldly 
policy  out  of  the  temple?  Would  not  the  ecclesiastics  of  this 
age  denounce  Him  as  a  dangerous  demagogue,  as  a  religious 
alien,  a  blasphemer  and  political  agitator,  who,  forsooth,  was 
disturbing  the  peace  of  the  nation  and  attempting  to  destroy 
the  established  order  of  things  and  who,  therefore,  was  deserv- 
ing of  political  exile  or  of  imprisonment  and  death? 

li  Jesus  were  here  among  men,  would  He  less  resolutely 
oppose  the  traditions  and  religious  formalism  of  the  churches 
of  the  present  day,  or  any  less  fearlessly  denounce  the  pride  of 
priesthood  no  less  marked  in  this  day  than  it  was  in  the  days 
of  the  Jewish  hierarchy  ?  Would  the  theological  and  ritualistic 
ecclestiasticism  of  the  churches,  the  stately  worship  of  temple 
or  cathedral  find  any  more  favor  in  His  eyes  now  than  in  the 
days  of  Jewish  traditionalism  and  the  ceremonial  worship  and 
sensuous  sanctities  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem?  And  if  Jesus 
should  appear,  as  He  did  1900  years  ago,  would  He  find  the 
religionists  and  traditionalists,  the  priests  and  scribes  of  this 
age,  any  the  less  His  inveterate  enemies,  and  the  less  bitterly 
opposed  to  His  teachings  or  healing  works,  or  less  cruel  in  their 
opposition  to  Him  than  were  the  priests  and  scribes  of  the 
Jewish  church?  Would  they  not  even  deny  Him  the  rights  of 
humanity  if  he  entertained  any  other  sense  of  being  and  re- 
ligion than  theirs? 

Not  only  Pharisees,  priests  and  scribes,  but  Herodians  and 
Sadducees  declared  that  Jesus  belonged  to  the  ranks  of  the 

95 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

common  people.  They  were  united  in  their  belief  that  whoever 
thought  differently  was  deceived.  His  own  home  condemned 
Him,  *'for  out  of  Galilee  cometh  no  prophet."  What  grant 
have  we  for  believing  that  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  this 
age  would  be  any  the  less  ready  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
Jewish  hierarchy  in  their  opposition  to  his  claims  as  the 
Messiah  ? 

If  Jesus  were  present  in  physical  form  to  condemn  the  gen- 
erations of  this  age  as  wicked  and  adulterous,  seeking  the  mate- 
rial rather  than  the  spiritual;  if  He  spared  not  the  sternest  re- 
buke and  reproof  of  all  forms  of  tyranny,  pride,  intolerance, 
bloodshed  and  ecclesiastical  and  industrial  despotism;  if  He 
hesitated  not  to  condemn  all  forms  of  selfishness,  greed, 
avarice,  chicanery  and  corruption,  whether  in  corporation, 
municipahty,  state  or  nation;  if  He  feared  not  to  denounce 
those  high  in  position,  whose  wealth  had  been  gained  by  un- 
righteous means;  if  He  were  to  inveigh  against  the  social  evils 
of  our  times,  the  falsehood,  envy,  hate  and  depravity  of 
society;  if  social  position  or  church  affiliation  weighed  not 
more  in  His  mind  than  when  He  taught  and  wrought  among 
the  hills  and  valleys  of  Judea  for  the  deliverance  of  mankind 
from  bondage  to  sin,  disease,  suffering  and  mortality;  if  He 

♦•were  to  seek  to  clarify  the. vision  of  men,  confused  by  the 
dazzHng  glow  of  material  success  and  to  rekindle  the  fires  of 
religious  enthusiasm,  let  me  ask  in  all  plainness  of  speech, 
would  those  who  claim  to  be  the  constituted  guardians  of  the 
church  be  any  the  less  opposed  to  Him  than  were  the  chief 
priests  and  scribes  and  Pharisees  of  nineteen  centuries  ago? 
Would  people  to-day  apprehend  any  more  clearly  than  did 

a':the  Jewish  religionists  His  spiritual  nature  as  the  Son  of  God, 

riOT  would  His  healing  work  through  the  power  of  the  spirit 
of  God  evoke  any  less  denial,  ingratitude  and  betrayal  than  it 

ijtiid  in  the  sensual  age  in  which  He  first  appeared  among  men  ? 

*. The  carnal  mind  of  the  Jews  was  at  enmity  with  Jesus'  claim 

.96 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  TRADITIONALISTS 

of  oneness  with  the  Father.  Their  thoughts  were  filled  with 
mortal  opposition  to  God's  spiritual  idea,  as  presented  by 
Christ  Jesus.  Would  this  age  discern  Jesus'  spiritual  origin 
any  more  clearly  than  did  the  Jews  of  1900  years  ago?  Would 
there  be  less  warfare  between  the  true  idea  of  God,  which 
Jesus  taught  and  embodied,  and  perfunctory  religion ;  between 
spiritual  clear-sightedness  and  the  blindness  of  popular  beHef 
now  than  when  He  was  upon  earth? 

Would  He  be  accorded  any  different  treatment  by  the  tra- 
ditionalists, the  priests  and  the  scribes  of  our  times,  than  that 
which  He  received  from  the  Rabbis  of  the  Jewish  church  when 
He  began  His  earthly  career?  Or  would  He  respect  in  a  lesser 
or  a  greater  degree  the  scholastic  theology,  the  doctrines, 
dogmas  and  traditions  of  the  churches  of  our  day  than  when 
He  taught  among  the  hills  and  valleys  of  Galilee?  Would  He 
concern  Himself  with  the  differences  of  polity,  ritual,  or  vary- 
ing forms  of  worship ;  with  sacerdotal  and  ecclesiastical  organ- 
ization or  the  absolutism  of  the  Roman  church?  Would  He 
lend  countenance  to  the  sectarianism  and  schism  of  organized 
Christianity;  to  the  disputes  as  to  apostolic  succession,  the 
validity  of  ministerial  orders,  or  the  primacy  of  St.  Peter,  and 
would  He  sanction  religious  intolerance,  pride,  bigotry  and  ex- 
clusiveness  any  more  now  than  He  did  the  traditionalism  and 
the  ceremonial  of  the  Jewish  church? 

Would  He  not  be  just  as  ready  as  in  the  days  when  He 
wrought  and  taught  among  the  common  people  in  the  land  of 
Palestine,  to  declare  that  the  Truth,  which  He  came  to  bring, 
would  make  men  free,  and  to  insist  that  new  wine  should  be  put 
in  new  bottles?  Would  not  His  coming  inevitably  mean  the 
establishment  of  a  new  religious  order  patterned  after  his 
ideals  and  endued  with  His  spirit  and  truth?  And  if  so,  would 
it  be  based  on  the  Anglican  Church  doctrine  that  those  mem- 
bers of  a  well  known  sect,  which  deny  both  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper,  are  altogether  external  to  His  fold,  and  no  mat- 

97 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

ter  what  may  be  their  benevolences  they  must  be  considered  to 
be  unchristian,  mere  heathens,  except  in  knowledge ;  or  would 
His  doctrine  be  the  same  as  in  the  days  of  His  ministry  among 
the  Jews — ''whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is 
in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother"  ? 

If  Jesus  were  here  the  second  time  in  physical  form,  would 
He  not  gather  about  Him  as  in  the  days  of  the  Jewish  hier- 
archy, a  body  of  true  disciples  to  whom  His  unfilled  commis- 
sions of  nineteen  centuries  ago  would  be  repeated — "And  as  ye 
go,  preach  saying,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal 
the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  raise  the  dead,  cast  out  devils"  ? 

The  Jewish  church  was  superseded  by  the  Christian  church. 
Will  not  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  whether  it  be  in  human 
form  or  incarnated  in  the  hearts  of  men,  most  surely  mean  that 
institutional  or  organized  Christianity  must  give  place  to  a 
new  religious  order  whose  unity  of  faith,  simplicity  of  worship, 
missionary  activity  and  healing  power  shall  correspond  to  that 
which  Jesus'  disciples  established  in  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era? 

Jury  of  the  Vicinage,  consider  of  your  verdict. 


96 


P^y 


II. 

A  NEW  RELIGIOUS  ORDER. 
I. 

DURING  recent  centuries  the  great  Roman  Church  has 
not  only  lost  its  temporal  sovereignty,  it  has  Hkewise  lost 
its  spiritual  authority  over  more  than  half  of  the  Christian 
world.  It  has  also  lost  authority  over  the  modern  thinking 
world  and  is  suffering  a  serious  decay  of  faith  on  the  part  of 
its  own  followers. 

"The  ideal  of  the  one  church,"  according  to  Dr.  Newman 
Smyth,  "wanders  among  us  like  a  disembodied  spirit,  from 
church  to  church,  until  we  really  cease  to  believe  in  it.  The 
ideal  is  put  afar  from  us  as  a  millennial  dream;  it  fades  from 
our  religious  thought  as  a  momentary  glory  passes  from  the 
evening  sky.  The  ideal  of  the  one  organic  church  goes  out 
from  the  firmament  of  our  faith." 

All  the  signs  written  large  against  the  failures  of  the  Prot- 
estant and  the  Catholic  ages  herald  the  coming  of  a  new 
religious  order.  There  is  a  growing  Christian  consciousness  in 
which  is  enthroned  the  idea  of  the  Christian  society,  free  from 
externalities  and  unessential  forms,  a  return  to  the  simplicity 
of  the  primitive  Christian  Church,  and  which  likewise  shall 
be  an  advance  towards  the  complete  church  which  is  Christ's 
body,  the  fullness  of  Him  who  filleth  all  in  all. 

It  may  well  be  asked,  is  there  not  something  more  than  the 
voice  of  the  visionary  in  this  conclusion  of  Father  Tyrrell? 
"Taught  by  history — God's  great  logic  mill  which  has  worked 
out  both  these  sixteenth-century  solutions,  the  solution  of  un- 
fettered authority  and  the  solution  of  unfettered  liberty  to 
their  impossible  results — the  modernists  will  see  the  necessity 

i99      ' 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

of  going  back  to  the  point  of  divergence.  In  the  light  of  three 
centuries  of  necessary  but  costly  experience,  may  the  problem 
of  liberty  and  authority  not  now  admit  of  some  happier  solu- 
tion so  that  on  the  ruins  of  two  opposing  systems  there  may 
be  built  up  something  more  durable  than  either." 

Catholicity,  it  should  be  explained  in  this  connection,  refers 
to  a  temper  of  mind,  a  quality  of  spirit  characteristic  of  those 
united  to  Christ  as  members  of  the  church  invisible.  Cathol- 
icism is  a  manifestation  of  this  Christian  spirit  in  some  evident 
form,  in  other  words,  clothed  upon  with  some  body.  In  the 
closing  chapter  of  Dr.  Smyth's  book  on  "Passing  Protestantism 
and  Coming  Catholicism"  we  find  the  author  turning  seer  and 
prophet.  From  the  watch  towers  of  the  religious  world  he 
discerns  the  passing  of  the  old  religious  orders  and  the  coming 
of  the  new  Catholicism  whose  advent  he  proclaims  in  these 
eloquent  words : 

"The  law  came  by  Moses,  but  the  age  in  which  the  law 
was  given  rendered  necessary  the  age  of  the  prophets.  Not  to 
destroy  but  to  fulfill — the  ever  larger  fulfillment  of  the  law  and 
the  prophets  is  the  historic  work, — still  in  process  of  accom- 
plishment— of  the  Son  of  Man  who  said — 'my  Father  worketh 
hitherto  and  I  work' ;  it  is  the  increasing  work  of  Him  who 
sitteth  on  the  throne,  who  said :  'Behold  I  make  all  things  new.' 
In  the  main  the  distinctive  work  of  Protestants  as  Protestants 
has  been  done  and  in  the  fulfillment  of  its  providential  mission 
lies  the  sign  of  the  passing  of  the  Protestant  age. 

"The  spirit  of  Catholicity,  rising  from  the  death  of  sec- 
tarianism, will  not  be  made  perfect  until  it  shall  appear  in  some 
embodiment,  finer  indeed  and  more  free,  so  evidently  fash- 
ioned of  the  spiritual  elements  and  so  luminous  with  love  and 
yet  so  visible  whenever  disciples  are  met  together  that  in  its 
presence  the  glory  of  Christ  may  be  made  manifest  even  as  he 
prayed. 

"Living  among  men  in  the  love  of  the  Son  of  Man  as  the 
servant  of  all ;  obedient  in  every  thought  to  the  truth  that  makes 
free,  possessing  as  its  own  the  fulness  of  its  creeds  and  even 
following  on  to  know  the  Lord,  praying  always  that,  with  all 

100 


A  NEW  RELIGIOUS  ORDER 

the  saints  it  may  be  strong  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which 
passeth  knowledge — such  more  visibly  shall  be  the  one  Cath- 
olic Church — seeing  which  the  world  might  believe." 

The  manifestation  anew  of  the  mind  that  was  in  Jesus  will 
be  Christ's  second  coming,  and,  as  foretold  in  Scripture,  even 
at  an  hour  when  we  may  not  be  looking,  *'the  Son  of  Man 
Cometh."  The  appearance  in  history  of  the  Judea-Christian 
church  came  as  a  surprise  to  Peter  in  his  dream  on  the  house- 
top. And  as  Dr.  Smyth  has  well  said,  the  realization  of  that 
dream  in  the  primitive  Christian  church  is  the  marvel  of  the 
ages  in  the  eyes  of  modern  historians.  Nevertheless,  as  we 
now  look  back  upon  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  we 
see  how  naturally  it  came  to  pass  as  the  fulfillment  of  the  old 
prophecies  of  history  and  as  the  immediate  manifestation  of 
the  mind  that  was  in  Jesus ! 

"Concerning  the  form  in  which  Christian  unity  may  be 
made  visible,  we  know  not  with  what  body  it  shall  come,  and 
it  may  not  come  in  the  way  we  may  imagine.  From  the  bap- 
tism of  the  Spirit  may  proceed — perhaps  sooner  than  men 
may  think  or  dream — the  age  of  the  one  Holy  Catholic 
Church."^ 

II. 

We  hear  on  every  side  the  cry,  the  churches  are  decaying. 
Nevertheless  true  religion  is  not  dying  out  in  the  hearts  of 
men.  Millions  have  awaited  the  call  of  the  prophet  whose 
genius  shall  create  new  forms  or  restore  neglected  and  long- 
lost  ones,  which  will  embody  the  spirit  and  truth  of  Christ,  in 
which  and  through  which  the  divine  energies  may  be  man- 
ifested in  such  power  as  will,  in  the  language  of  Edward 
Markham,  **make  right  the  immemorial  infamies,  perfidious 
wrongs,  immedicable  woes"  of  betrayed  humanity,  suffering 
from  an  oppression  which  degrades  man  to  the  level  of  the 
beast,  and  makes  him  the  savage  of  a  civilization  that  not  only 

^Passing  Protestantism  and  Coming  Catholicism,  pages 
197-209. 

101 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

disgraces  the  nation  under  which  oppression  flourishes,  but 
the  organized  or  institutional  Christianity  whose  impotence  it 
proclaims. 

"We  are  entering,"  said  the  editor  of  the  Independent  a 
few  years  ago,  "on  a  new  era  which  shall  be  greater  than  the 
past.  What  revelation  from  God  is  to  be  spoken?  Who  shall 
speak  it?  Not  that  man,  be  sure,  who  is  the  most  self-con- 
fident; not  that  man  who  is  the  most  learned;  but  that  man 
who  stands  most  open  to  the  clear  light  of  heaven,  nearest  to 
the  divine  Principle — and  who  in  all  sincerity  is  willing  to  be 
illumined,  not  by  the  light  of  old  theories  and  outlived  faiths, 
but  by  that  of  the  Infinite  Father  to-day." 

Recently  the  Brampton  lecturer  in  the  pulpit  of  St.  Mary's 
at  Oxford  made  this  emphatic  declaration :  "I  see  the  rise  of 
a  new  religious  order,  the  greatest  that  the  world  has  known, 
drawn  from  all  nations  and  classes,  and,  what  seems  stranger 
yet,  from  all  churches."  To  this  significant  statement  the 
Rev.  Newman  Smyth  refers  in  a  passage  which  might  well 
have  been  phrased  in  a  positive  rather  than  a  tentative  form : 

"There  is  no  surer  mark  of  a  prophetic  truth  than  this,  it 
seems  to  rise  of  itself  above  the  horizon  and  is  found  shining 
in  all  men's  eyes.  Is  the  thought  of  some  new,  more  universal 
order  of  Christianity  coming  thus  to  m.en's  minds  spontane- 
ously, generally?  Is  it  working  everywhere  hardly  recognized, 
or  least  to  be  expected,  beneath  existing  forms  and  customs? 
Is  it  in  the  air — an  indefinable  influence  yet  a  new  breath  of 
the  Spirit,  in  which  thought  expands  and  faith  receives  fresh 
vitalities  ?" 

A  distinguished  figure  among  modernists  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church — Don  Romola  Murri,  who  commands  a  de- 
voted following  in  Italy,  says:  "We  desire  a  Christianity 
more  pure,  more  intense,  more  practical,  more  Christian,  more 
conformed  to  its  original,  more  conformed  to  the  Gospel." 
Does  he  not  voice  the  aspirations  not  only  of  thousands  who 
are  in  revolt  against  official  Romanism,  but  of  thousands  who 

102 


A  NEW  RELIGIOUS  ORDER 

are  in  revolt  against  the  outlived  creeds  and  dogmas  and 
ecclesiasticism  of  Protestant  denominations? 

The  time  has  fully  ripened  for  the  appearance  of  a  new 
religious  order,  for  the  manifestation  of  the  spirit  of  Christian 
unity  in  some  worthier  embodiment  than  that  to  be  found  in 
either  historic  Judaism,  declining  Romanism,  or  passing  Prot- 
estantism. Religion  is  withdrawing  from  the  Protestant 
churches.  There  are  increasing  numbers  of  people  who  belong 
to  no  church,  confess  no  creed  and  rarely  attend  church  ser- 
vice, but  who  nevertheless  are  not  irreligious  or  without  faith. 
Protestant  creeds  and  theological  formulas  no  longer  appeal  to 
them  as  worthy  of  acceptance.  Roman  absolutism  repels  rather 
than  attracts  them. 

III. 

In  view  of  what  is  to  follow  we  may  profitably  study  the 
history  of  the  inception  of  the  early  Christian  church  as  given 
in  the  Book  of  Acts: 

"And  they,  continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in  the  temple, 
and  breaking  bread  from  house  to  house,  did  eat  their  meat 
with  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart,  praising  God,  and  hav- 
ing favor  with  all  the  people.  And  the  Lord  added  to  the 
church  daily  such  as  should  be  saved." 

The  work  of  the  apostles  is  described  in  these  words: 

"By  the  hands  of  the  apostles  were  many  signs  and  won- 
ders wrought  among  the  people There  came  also  a 

multitude  out  of  the  cities  round  about  Jerusalem,  bringing 
sick  folks,  and  them  which  were  vexed  with  unclean  spirits: 
and  they  were  healed  every  one."     (Acts  v,  12-16.) 

The  missionary  work  of  the  early  Christian  church  is  sim- 
ply told  in  these  expressive  words:  "And  they  went  forth 
and  preached  everywhere,  the  Lord  working  with  them  and 
confirming  the  word  with  signs  following." 

The  gospel  of  Jesus  was  a  healing  gospel  and  such  it  con- 
tinued to  be  during  the  first  few  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
The  religion  which  Jesus'  followers  were  to  carry  to  the  ends 

103 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

of  the  earth  stood  in  relation  to  the  ancient  faiths  as  some- 
thing absolutely  new  and  distinctive  in  character.  It  was  to  be 
a  strange  and  extraordinary  thing,  a  religious  society  without 
the  symbols,  sacrifices,  ceremonies,  or  officials  hitherto  held  to 
be  the  religious  all  in  all.  The  society  which  Jesus  founded 
was  one  that  should  realize  His  own  ideal.  It  was  to  be  a 
kingdom  of  heaven,  spiritual,  eternal,  which  came  without  ob- 
servation but  was  to  manifest  itself  in  the  peace  and  joy  and 
love  of  its  citizens. 

We  have  already  seen  that  there  is  not  the  least  scintilla  of 
evidence  to  show  that  Jesus  ever  made  use  of  any  terms  that 
implied  a  priesthood  for  His  people  or  the  continuance  of  any 
priesthood  within  His  church,  or  that  He  ever  created  any 
order  of  priesthood  to  which  any  man  could  belong.  On  the 
contrary,  His  relation  to  the  priesthood  of  His  land  and  time 
was  one  of  radical  antagonism. 

The  early  Christian  church  had  its  apostles,  its  prophets,  its 
overseers,  its  teachers,  its  deacons  and  evangelists,  but  it  had 
no  priests  and  no  man  or  body  of  men  who  bore  the  name  or 
fulfilled  the  priestly  duties  as  these  are  known  in  ancient  re- 
ligions. 

In  this  Christianity  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  primitive 
Christianity,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  call  it,  there  is  no  pro- 
vision to  be  found  anywhere  for  an  official  priesthood.  There 
is  no  order  possessed  of  the  exclusive  right  to  officiate  in 
things  sacred,  exercising  this  function  by  virtue  of  some  in- 
alienable right.  In  the  apostolic  church  the  laymen  might 
baptize  or  celebrate  the  Eucharist;  the  individual  society  or 
church  could  exercise  discipline,  could  even  institute  or  depose 
its  officers.    It  had  no  sensuous  sanctities. 

There  is  nothing  to  indicate  the  existence  in  the  church  of 
the  New  Testament  of  the  monarchial  idea  or  any  anticipation 
or  prophecy  of  it.  The  church  had  a  fraternal  but  no  corporate 
relation.     Supremacy  belonged  to  no  man,  Christ  was  the  sole 

104 


A  NEW  RELIGIOUS  ORDER 

authority  to  whom  "all  power  is  given  in  heaven  and  in  earth." 
The  idea  of  an  official,  infallible  head  is  foreign  to  the  mind 
of  Christ.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  guide  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  Truth  that  shall  make  free.  The  kingdom  is  a  realm  where 
the  will  of  God  is  law,  and  the  law  is  love,  and  the  citizens  are 
the  loving  and  the  obedient. 

There  were  no  bishops  in  the  modern  sense  over  any 
church  or  over  the  whole  church.  Worship  did  not  depend  on 
sacred  persons,  places  or  rites,  but  was  to  be  a  thing  of  spirit 
and  truth.  The  best  prayer  is  sacred  and  personal;  the  only 
sacrifices  Jesus  asked  man  to  offer  are  those  of  the  spirit  and 
the  life.    God  does  not  need  to  be  propitiated,  but  is  propitious. 

IV. 

In  the  year  1866  a  New  England  woman,  Mary  Baker 
Eddy,  then  45  years  of  age,  compared  herself  to  a  voice  crying 
in  the  spiritual  wilderness  of  the  nineteenth  century :  "Prepare 
ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway 
for  our  God."  Thirteen  years  thereafter,  a  little  band  of 
"earnest  seekers  after  Truth"  met  together  and  went  into  delib- 
erations over  forming  a  church  to  be  called  "The  Church  of 
Christ,  Scientist."  Mary  Baker  Eddy  conducted  the  meeting 
and  those  present  were  students  of  Christian  Science  as  she 
had  taught  and  demonstrated  it. 

The  purpose  of  that  meeting  was  to  establish  a  church 
which  should  be  without  a  creed,  that  should  be  founded  on 
the  Rock,  Christ  Jesus,  whose  words  and  works  it  should  un- 
dertake to  commemorate,  and  with  the  purpose  to  reinstate 
primitive  Christianity  with  its  lost  element  of  healing ;  in  other 
words,  to  form  a  religious  society  or  Christian  brotherhood, 
based  upon  the  Christ  ideal,  the  apostolic  simplicity  and  the 
healing  power  of  the  early  Christian  Church.  She  had  taught 
these  students  to  look  for  the  signs  of  Christ's  coming;  that 

105 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Christ  as  the  spiritual,  or  true,  idea  of  God  comes  now  as  of 
old,  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  poor,  healing  the  sick  and  cast- 
ing out  evils. 

"Truth's  immortal  idea,"  she  declared  with  confident  faith, 
"is  sweeping  down  the  centuries,  gathering  beneath  its  wing 

the  sick  and  sinning The  promises  will  be  fulfilled. 

The  time  for  the  reappearing  of  the  divine  healing  is  through- 
out all  time,  and  whosoever  layeth  his  earthly  all  on  the  altar 
of  divine  Science  drinketh  of  Christ's  cup  now,  and  is  endued 
with  the  spirit  and  power  of  Christian  healing."^ 

She  declared  that  the  way  to  immortality  and  life  is  not 
ecclestiastical,  but  Christian ;  not  human,  but  divine ;  not  physi- 
cal, but  metaphysical ;  not  material,  but  scientifically  spiritual ; 
that  Christ  planted  Christianity  on  the  foundation  of  Spirit ; 
that  he  taught  as  he  was  inspired  by  the  Father,  and  would 
recognize  no  life,  intelligence  nor  substance  outside  of  God. 
She  made  clear  to  her  followers  that  the  divine  truth  must  be 
made  known  by  its  eflFects  on  the  body,  as  well  as  upon  the 
mind  before  the  science  of  being  could  be  demonstrated;  that 
demonstration  and  spiritual  understanding  are  God's  immortal 
keynote,  proved  to  be  such  by  our  Master  and  evidenced  by 
the  sick  who  are  cured  and  the  sinful  who  are  saved.  She 
insisted  that  the  proofs  which  Jesus  gave  of  Truth,  Life  and 
Love,  by  casting  out  error  and  healing  the  sick  completed  his 
earthly  mission,  which  mission  His  followers  were  to  per- 
petuate. 

The  work  which  this  little  band  of  Scientists  undertook, 
viz. :  "To  commemorate  Christ's  words  and  works,  to  restore 
primitive  Christianity  and  its  lost  element  of  healing,"  is  pre- 
eminently the  task  of  this  age. 

Out  of  that  now  historic  little  meeting,  held  in  the  city  of 
Lynn,  Mass.,  in  the  summer  of  1879,  for  the  purpose  of  organ- 
izing a  church  and  reinstating  primitive  Christianity  and  its 

^Science  and  Health,  page  55. 

106 


A  NEW  RELIGIOUS  ORDER 

lost   element   of    healing,    has   grown   the    Christian    Science 
church  as  we  know  it  to-day. 

Is  it  exemplifying  the  simplicity  and  unity  of  the  early 
Christian  Church;  is  it  realizing  the  mission  to  which  it  is 
committed?  Does  its  teachings  and  institutional  life  furnish 
a  basis  of  Christian  brotherhood  or  fellowship  in  which  all  true 
followers  of  Christ  throughout  the  world  may  unite  in  the 
worship  and  service  of  the  one  true  God;  and  if  so,  is  it  des- 
tined to  become  the  visible  embodiment  of  the  ideal  Chris- 
tianity of  Jesus  Christ  in  which  all  discord  as  to  doctrine  and 
worship  will  die  away  in  the  unity  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
all  discordant  elements  be  fused  into  the  one  universal  Church 
of  Christ,  at  peace  with  itself  and  mighty  for  the  pulling  down 
of  the  strongholds  of  evil  and  for  the  establishment  of  Christ's 
kingdom  on  earth? 


107 


In  the  grand  anthem,  which  ive  call  history,  after  playing 
a  low  and  subdued  accompaniment,  woman  finds  the  time  ar- 
rived when  she  may  strike  in  with  telling  effect  and  take  a 
Master's  part  in  the  music. — Emerson. 


The  age  grows  impatient  of  ex  cathedra  laws;  it  merges 

more  and  more  from  ecclesiastical  sway  into  the  broader  life 

of  developed  personality.    Something  diviner  than  church  law 

of  doubtful  authority  must  be  our  reliance  for  a  higher  life. — 

Bishop  Andrews. 


The  truth  seems  to  be  breaking  upon  the  English  people, 
that  they  have  yet  to  see  the  realization  of  a  society  corre- 
sponding to  the  ideal  of  Christ  and  that  to  accomplish  this 
ideal,  they  must  take  some  higher  and  nobler  way  than  the 
ancient  method  of  founding  and  maintaining  churches. — 
Dr.  Fairbairn. 


109 


III. 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

THE  founding  of  a  great  religious  denomination  by  a 
woman  is  a  fact  historically  without  precedent.  Reading 
the  record  of  the  Christian  Science  movement,  one  sees  a 
heroic  figure  emerging  from  the  words  and  deeds  of  the  last 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  woman  of  genius,  who  by 
virtue  of  her  special  qualifications,  has  become  the  channel  for 
the  communication  of  a  message  of  the  deepest  import  to 
humanity,  and  who  has  put  into  the  Christian  Science  church 
a  creative  force  and  energy  that  is  making  it  one  of  the  strong- 
est influences  in  the  life  of  the  age. 

A  woman  of  power  and  of  destiny,  of  great  physical  beauty, 
"illumined  from  within" ;  her  figure  is  touched  with  romance ; 
it  fascinates  the  imagination.  Her  presence  is  inspiring,  yet 
persuasive  in  its  sweetness,  because  of  the  charm  of  many  en- 
gaging qualities  of  mind  and  heart.  Nevertheless,  she  pos- 
sesses great  strength  of  character  and  indomitable  courage  and 
tenacity  of  trust  in  God  so  that  she  has  been  enabled  to  sweep 
every  obstacle  from  her  path.  As  the  discoverer  of  Christian 
Science;  as  the  author  of  the  Christian  Science  text-book, 
Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures;  as  a  great 
reformer  and  leader  whom  the  world  now  recognizes  as  the 
foremost  of  the  age,  Mary  Baker  Eddy  possesses  the  attractive- 
ness and  interest  of  a  great  historical  character. 

The  originator  of  a  great  metaphysical  healing  movement 
which  derives  its  sanction  from  the  Bible  and  demonstrates  the 
holy  influence  of  the  Truth  in  healing  sickness  and  sin,  and 
which  points  the  way  to  the  restoration  to  Christianity  of  the 
long-lost  element  of  spiritual  healing;  the  acknowledged  head 
of   one   of   the   greatest   religious   movements   known,   whose 

110 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

spiritual  forces  she  has  directed;  a  wise  and  courageous  coun- 
sellor, who  has  guided  with  efficient  methods  to  noble  ends, 
yet  withal  in  a  spirit  of  sweet  simplicity  and  spiritual  devout- 
ness,  and  with  such  faithfulness  to  her  exalted  mission  as  to 
enshrine  her  in  the  affections  of  numberless  thousands  of 
loyal  followers ;  a  great  American  woman  who  has  brought  to 
mankind  an  evangel  of  good,  of  hope,  of  love,  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science  is  in  many  respects  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable women  ever  born  in  this  country.  Some  have  even 
pronounced  her  the  most  marvelous  woman  of  either  modern 
or  ancient  history. 

Despite  the  ridicule,  the  denunciation  and  even  the  perse- 
cution which  she  has  encountered,  she  lived  to  behold  her 
teachings  accepted  by  thousands  of  followers  in  America,  Eng- 
land and  continental  Europe;  in  the  far  East,  and  in  the  Isles 
of  the  Sea.  Her  doctrines,  adopted  by  many  of  those  who 
have  been  at  first  opposed  to  her,  are  modifying  to  a  remark- 
able extent  the  thought  of  the  age  along  both  philosophical  and 
religious  lines. 

Under  her  leadership  and  wise  counsel  a  religion  which 
must  be  classed  among  the  principal  faiths  of  the  civilized 
world  has  been  established  and  is  now  in  a  highly  prosperous 
condition.  She  developed  it  until  it  has  become  a  factor  in 
the  progress  of  nations.  She  organized  it  as  no  other  religion 
has  ever  been  organized ;  and  she  guided  her  followers  as  few 
heads  of  a  church  have  ever  done.  In  making  these  state- 
ments I  am  but  reflecting  the  judgment  of  disinterested  ob- 
servers. 

Mary  Baker  Eddy  was  a  woman  of  progressive  and  ad- 
vanced ideas,  a  great  spiritual  thinker  with  the  temperament  of 
the  seer.  She  was  the  herald  of  a  new  crusade  for  universal 
freedom,  a  woman  whose  heart  was  "a  passion  flower,  bearing 
within  it  the  crown  of  thorns  and  the  cross  of  Christ."  Without 
means   or   influential   connections,   as   the   world   judges,   she 

111 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

undertook  the  seemingly  impossible  and  utterly  hopeless  task 
of  restoring  to  this  age  primitive  Christianity  with  its  charac- 
teristic but  lost  element  of  healing,  a  task  which  from  the  very 
beginning  called  for  more  than  human  wisdom  and  endurance. 

She  knew  what  it  is  to  meet  the  world's  dread  scorn;  to 
be  greatly  misunderstood,  greatly  misrepresented  and  cruelly 
maligned,  yet  bore  it  all  with  a  self-sacrificing  disposition  and 
freedom  from  unfriendly  criticism  or  uncharitableness  to- 
wards her  enemies  almost  without  parallel  in  history.  With 
an  experience  of  deep  sorrow,  of  sharp  disappointment,  of 
penury  and  the  ingratitude  of  those  whom  she  has  benefited, 
which  filled  life's  cup  of  suffering  to  the  brim,  she  nevertheless 
labored  with  sublime  courage  for  the  triumph  of  good  over 
evil  in  every  phase  of  human  experience,  and  has  lived  to  see 
a  noble  purpose  grandly  realized.  In  her  life  there  was  no 
relaxation  of  care,  even  in  the  beauty  and  serenity  of  her 
advanced  age.  While  accomplishing  a  greater  work  in  the 
religious  field  than  any  one  man  since  the  days  of  Paul,  she 
constantly  sought  to  direct  attention  away  from  herself  and 
her  work  to  God,  whose  will  she  selflessly  has  striven  to  do. 
It  is  because  of  this  most  striking  characteristic  that  she  was 
enabled  to  draw  a  million  followers  into  loving  accord  with  her 
interpretation  of  the  Bible,  followers  who  entertain  towards 
her  sentiments  of  love  and  gratitude  because  of  a  condition  of 
happiness,  contentment,  surety,  peace,  hitherto  unknown  in 
their  lives. 

So  far  as  the  attacks  made  upon  Mrs.  Eddy  are  concerned, 
like  Greeley's  abuse  of  Lincoln,  they  represent  a  point  of  view 
which  in  these  latter  days  we  realize  was  out  of  focus.  While 
the  critics  have  given  this  or  that  as  a  conclusive  reason  why 
Mrs.  Eddy  could  not  possibly  have  written  the  Christian 
Science  Text-book,  or  organized  and  directed  the  great  re- 
ligious movement  which  it  has  fostered,  not  one  has  yet  an- 
swered the  question,  **who  taught  her  how  to  do  it  ?" 

112 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

From  whatever  angle  we  may  view  this  pioneer  of  a  new 
religious  movement,  this  rare  woman  whose  daring  and  doing 
has  lifted  her  into  prominence  as  the  central  figure  in  the 
religious  world  of  the  nineteenth  and  the  twentieth  centuries, 
we  perceive  at  once  those  qualities  which  would  have  stamped 
her  as  a  remarkable  woman  in  any  age.  Clear  insight,  fine 
tact,  invincible  courage,  business  acumen,  administrative  and 
executive  ability,  a  remarkable  faculty  for  organization,  a  phe- 
nomenal talent  not  only  for  "seeing  things  in  the  large  and 
seeing  them  in  the  whole,"  but  for  holding  the  balance  be- 
tween the  ideal  and  the  practical;  pre-eminent  in  the  noble 
gifts  of  patience,  persistence  and  courage,  yet  wasting  no 
energy  in  her  almost  ceaseless  activities ;  winning  and  holding 
her  friends  with  a  wonderful  simplicity  which  has  yielded 
nothing  of  her  heroic  purpose ;  achieving  success  without  those 
influences,  means  and  resources,  deemed  most  essential  to  suc- 
cess in  this  age,  and  doing  so  in  the  face  of  the  world's  hostility 
and  opposition — the  story  of  this  woman's  life  and  the  found- 
ing and  growth  of  the  Christian  Science  church  become  a 
grand  epic  which  the  perspective  of  history,  as  the  years- roll 
by,  will  lift  into  sharp  relief  as  the  masterpiece  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

The  story  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy's  career  and  achievements 
is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  book ;  it  belongs  to  the  future 
historian.  There  are,  however,  some  salient  features,  the 
recital  of  which  will  maintain  the  continuity  of  our  presenta- 
tion of  facts  relating  to  the  inception  and  growth  of  the 
Christian  Science  movement. 


Since  the  foregoing  was  penned  Mrs.  Eddy  has  unexpect- 
edly passed  away  from  the  earthly  scene  of  her  untiring  activ- 
ities in  the  service  of  God  and  humanity.  This  is  not  an  ap- 
propriate time  to  set  an  estimate  upon  her  right  to  enduring 


113 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

fame.  It  can  be  more  accurately  judged  by  posterity  in  the 
light  of  a  broader  perspective  than  is  ours  at  the  present  time. 
But  whatever  one's  opinion  may  be  in  matters  of  religion  it 
will  be  generally  admitted  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  influence  has  been 
constantly  directed  towards  the  good  of  others  and  that  this 
betterment  has  been  especially  noticeable  in  the  lives  of  those 
who  have  come  within  the  range  of  her  influence  or  of  the 
movement  which  she  has  inspired  and  directed. 

New  England  has  produced  many  strong  characters  from 
Anne  Bradstreet  down,  who  have  dared  to  oppose  a  militant 
heterodoxy  against  a  narrow  and  inadequate  orthodoxy.  Mrs. 
Eddy  may  justly  be  regarded  not  only  as  one  of  the  strongest 
and  most  unique  characters  in  New  England  history,  but  as 
one  of  the  historic  women  of  American  history,  the  first, 
in  fact,  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  to  obtain  world-wide 
reputation  as  a  religious  leader.  She  has  had  the  courage  to 
expound  new  and  revolutionary  doctrines  not  only  in  the  realm 
of  religion  but  of  Science  as  well,  for  which  the  world  will  yet 
be  grateful  to  her.  She  has  been  the  first  among  the  women  to 
create  a  church ;  to  organize  a  polity  and  to  build  up  a  powerful 
and  opulent  ecclestiastical  organization,  unparalleled  in  its 
unity  and  compactness,  and  to  establish  and  promote  a  world- 
wide propaganda.  She  has  glorified  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  made  them  a  living  power  to-day  as  1900  years  ago. 
She  has  presented  and  made  practical  religious  ideas  centuries 
old ;  through  her  teachings  and  labor  the  healing  and  saving 
power  of  the  Christ  truth  has  been  applied  to  the  conditions  of 
life  among  the  people  of  to-day.  She  has  made  that  Truth 
a  practicable  and  demonstrable  one,  not  only  to  this  country 
but  in  the  continents  and  islands  of  the  old  world. 

In  international  reputation  and  in  the  wide  dispersion  of 
her  followers,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  no  equal  among  American 
women.  Her  record  as  an  ecclesiastical  organizer,  as  a  great 
constructive  religious  personality  no  woman   of  any   time  or 

114 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

people  has  ever  duplicated.  She  has  made  the  record  of  the 
Christian  Science  Church  a  phenomenal  one  in  the  history 
of  modern  religious  movement. 

Whatever  the  sentiments  v^^hich  we  may  entertain  towards 
Mrs.  Eddy  it  is  folly  to  underrate  the  significance  of  her  life, — 
it  constitutes  the  most  amazing  phenomenon  in  American  life. 
We  are  compelled  to  admit  the  fact  that  in  the  inception  and 
the  marvelous  extension  of  the  Christian  Science  Movement, 
she  has  successfully  maintained  her  position  as  its  accepted 
leader  and  has  exercised  throughout  a  tremendous  power  and 
influence  in  fostering  its  growth  and  directing  its  activities. 

Study  her  career  from  whatever  angle  you  please,  one 
cannot  fail  to  recognize  her  unique  personality,  her  unusual 
ability  and  the  remarkable  calmness  and  fortitude  with  which 
she  has  met  and  mastered  the  antagonism  and  emphatic  dis- 
agreements aroused  by  her  doctrines.  She  has  lived  to  see 
her  devoted  adherents  numbered  by  thousands,  many  of  them 
of  high  intelligence  and  substance,  and  to  see  the  standards 
of  Christian  Science  carried  to  almost  every  part  of  the  habit- 
able globe.  She  has  lived  to  see  the  faith  of  her  followers  in 
the  divine  verity  taught  by  her,  viz. :  that  "God,  not  man,  is  the 
center  and  circumference  of  being,  the  Principle  and  Life  of 
all,"  backed  by  the  erection  of  costly  and  impressive  edifices 
of  worship,  both  here  and  elsewhere. 

Through  her  spiritual  insight  and  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  Bible  is  becoming  a  mighty  life-giving  power 
to  multitudes  who  formerly  knew  only  the  letter  and  not  its 
true  spiritual  import  and  whose  lives  have  demonstrated  the 
healing  power  of  Divine  Truth  as  unfolded  by  her  in  Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures. 

After  a  long  and  laborious  life,  her  closing  years  were  spent 
in  peace  with  the  world.  She  has  passed  quietly  on  leaving 
behind  her  an  institution  which  is  not  only  due  to  her  con- 
summate constructive  skill,  but  has  been  so  firmly  established 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

on  such  a  sound  and  enduring  basis  as  to  make  it  one  of  the 
strongest  religious  bodies  in  the  world. 

We  cannot  but  concede  to  Mrs.  Eddy  the  possession  of  a 
keen  understanding  of  humanity,  a  far  vision  and  an  extraor- 
dinary perception  of  the  possibilities  of  an  idea  which  has  filled 
the  minds  of  thousands.  In  this  idea  she  has  maintained  an 
invincible,  living  faith.  The  Christian  Science  organization  is 
emphatically  her  work.  She  has  succeeded  in  making  Jesus 
Christ's  teachings  the  central  thought  and  the  essence  of  a 
tremendously  powerful  religious  structure.  Remarkable  for 
her  spiritual  intuitions  in  matters  religious,  she  is  not  less 
remarkable  for  her  knowledge  of  the  world  and  her  keen  judg- 
ment of  men.  She  has  been  able  to  gather  about  her  many 
able  organizers  and  administrators,  but  the  work  and  attain- 
ments of  none  of  these  detract  from  her  fame  and  station  as 
the  founder  and  leader  of  the  Christian  Science  Movement. 
Hers  was  the  genius  and  hers  was  the  originating  energy  which 
made  the  work  of  others  possible  and  profitable  for  the  Church. 

The  great  test  of  every  great  builder  or  founder,  whether 
in  statecraft,  business,  politics  or  religion,  is  the  ability  to 
build  up  a  strong  organization  and  yet  maintain  the  position  of 
founder  or  builder  without  making  the  organization  or  institu- 
tion dependent  on  personality.  In  no  other  respect  is  the 
sagacity  and  masterly  executive  and  administrative  capacity  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  more  remarkably  displayed  than  in  the  wisdom  with 
which  she  has  built  up  and  directed  the  activities  of  the  rap- 
idly extending  Christian  Science  Movement.  She  has  so  effec- 
tively provided  for  its  order  and  the  administration  of  its 
affairs  under  a  complete  system  of  government  that  her  demise 
leaves  no  question  as  to  the  effectual  regulation  and  perpet- 
uation of  the  movement.  She  has  throughout  been  guided  by 
a  fixed  purpose  to  direct  the  thought  of  her  following  from 
human  personality  to  divine  principle.  In  one  of  her  articles 
in  the  Christian  Science  Journal  she  says :     "There  never  was 

116 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

a  religion  or  philosophy  lost  to  the  centuries  except  by  sinking 
its  divine  principle  in  personality."  Profiting  by  this  lesson 
she  has  not  only  sought  seclusion  for  herself,  but,  with  rare 
spiritual  discernment,  has  safeguarded  the  church  by  the  abo- 
lition of  personal  preaching  and  those  regulations  which  fixed 
the  bounds  to  the  scope  of  personal  backing  and  the  functions 
of  teachers. 

Christian  Science  is  here  to  remain,  in  all  likelihood,  for  a 
long,  long  time.  The  passing  of  its  founder  leaves  the  church 
in  able  hands  with  a  following  deeply  loyal  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
teachings  as  contained  in  Science  and  Health,  the  text-book  of 
the  church.  Her  idea  throughout  has  been  to  minimize  the 
power  of  personality  and  leadership  and  to  impress  upon 
every  member  a  deep  sense  of  personal  responsibility.  While 
we  may  speculate  as  to  whether  or  no  the  church,  as  some  have 
predicted,  will  in  the  next  decade  be  the  most  powerful  in  the 
world,  next  to  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  there  is  scarcely 
any  chance  for  argument  as  to  the  extraordinary,  the  amazing 
personality  of  the  frail  little  woman — an  invalid  until  middle 
age — out  of  whose  brain  and  indomitable  will  that  church  was 
born.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  her  counterpart  in  all  the 
annals  of  ancient  and  modern  history.  "Many  men  and  many 
women,"  as  the  Rev.  Thos.  B.  Gregory  has  justly  remarked, 
"have  equalled  or  exceeded  her  in  intellectual  power  and  per- 
sonal attractions,  but  for  might  of  personality  and  mental  in- 
fluence, where  among  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men  shall  we 
find  one  who  accomplished  so  great  a  life-work?" 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  both  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the 
Christian  Science  cause  have  had  to  pass  through  the  blazing 
fires  of  our  modern  publicity.  This  woman's  triumphs  were 
achieved  in  a  densely  materialistic  age,  at  a  time  when  the 
critic's  eye  is  peering  into  every  nook  and  comer  of  things  to 
detect  and  expose  every  species  of  fraud  and  imposition.  The 
searchlight  of  a  hostile  and  powerful  press  has  been  turned 

117 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

upon  every  nook  and  cranny  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life  from  infancy 
to  old  age;  nay,  more,  she  has  had  to  meet  and  endure  the 
world's  derision,  and  a  volume  of  abuse  and  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  most  virulent  sort,  sufficient  to  have  swept  out  of 
existence  any  movement  less  solidly  grounded  in  Truth.  To 
have  done  what  Mary  Baker  Eddy  unquestionably  has  done 
under  these  circumstances,  in  the  midst  of  this  the  brightest 
age  that  the  world  has  ever  known,  is  enough,  as  a  recent 
writer  has  observed,  *'to  give  her  an  elevated  niche  in  the 
temple  of  Fame,  a  place,  as  it  were,  all  by  herself,  without 
peer  or  rival." 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  an  article  from  Mrs.  Eddy's 
pen,  on  page  207  of  Miscellaneous  Writings,  illustrates  her 
attitude  toward  the  world  and  her  deep  desire  that  her  fol- 
lowers should  be  imbued  with  the  same  spirit  as  her  own. 
It  bears  the  impress  of  her  deep,  unselfish  love  for  humanity 
and  throws  a  clear,  revealing  light  upon  the  innermost  spirit 
and  purpose  of  her  life: 

"As  you  journey,  and  betimes  sigh  for  rest,  'beside  still 
waters,'  ponder  this  lesson  of  love.  Learn  its  purpose;  and  in 
hope  and  faith,  where  heart  meets  heart  reciprocally  blest, 
drink  with  me  the  living  waters  of  the  spirit  of  my  life-purpose 
to  impress  humanity  with  the  genuine  recognition  of  practical, 
operative  Christian  Science." 

Could  she  speak  to-day,  in  the  flesh,  it  seems  as  if  she  might 
fittingly  say,  as  did  Paul : 

"I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course.  I 
have  kept  the  faith:  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  Righteous  Judge, 
shall  give  me  at  that  day ;  and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto  all  them 
also  that  love  His  appearing." 

L — Some  Personal  Characteristics. 
Mrs.    Eddy    early    displayed    that    power    of    compelling 
obedience  which  has  marked  her  whole  life.     She  possessed  a 
deeply  spiritual  nature  combined  with  poetic  gifts  and  a  sweet- 

11& 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

ness  and  amiability  which  appealed  to  all  her  associates  and 
followers.  Temperamentally  and  religiously  she  was  absorbed 
and  in  later  years  was  criticized  for  the  atmosphere  of  seclusion 
which  she  wrapped  about  herself  and  which  it  was  difficult  to 
penetrate.  Those  around  her  did  not  intrude  upon  her  moods 
nor  force  their  wishes  upon  her  attention. 

There  are  those  who  declared  her  to  be  a  woman  of  power 
and  of  mystery,  a  seer  and  prophetess,  who  lived  a  wonderful 
life  and  did  a  wonderful  work.  By  others  she  was  held  to  be 
a  mystic  with  views  of  a  finer  world  than  lies  open  to  common 
sight;  that  she  possessed  a  gifted  and  poetic  nature;  that  she 
had  a  psychic  or  idealistic  temperament,  combined  with  prac- 
tical business  sense  and  marvelous  power  of  organization. 
Those  who  knew  her  best  tell  us  that  she  had  remarkable  per- 
sonal charm,  combined  with  gentleness,  patience,  humility  and 
•spiritual  exaltation ;  that  she  came  to  this  age  bringing  a  new 
evangel  to  humanity;  that  her  indomitable  courage  combined 
with  other  character  gifts  would  have  made  her  a  marked 
woman  in  any  circle.  Still  others  say  that  she  possessed  a 
spiritual  responsiveness  which  enabled  her  to  rediscover  the 
saving  truth  of  the  Master's  teaching  after  it  had  been  long 
obscured  in  human  consciousness;  that  she  had  the  capacity 
to  understand  and  state  the  principle  of  this  teaching;  to 
awaken  confidence  through  practical  demonstration,  and  to 
send  the  word  on  its  mission  of  healing. 

During  the  sixties  Mrs.  Eddy,  impelled  by  an  experience  of 
the  healing  Christ  in  an  hour  of  supreme  need,  withdrew  from 
society  for  a  period  of  three  years  to  ponder  her  mission;  to 
search  the  Scriptures ;  to  find  the  Science  of  Mind  that  should 
grasp  the  things  of  God,  show  them  to  the  creature  and  reveal 
the  great  curative  principle — Deity.  In  presenting  her  message 
to  the  world  she  declared  that  the  Bible  had  been  her  only 
text-book ;  that  the  Scriptures  had  presented  a  new  meaning,  a 
new  tongue ;  that  their  spiritual  signification  appeared  and  that 

119 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

for  the  first  time  she  was  able  to  apprehend  Jesus'  teaching  and 
demonstrations  in  their  spiritual  meaning,  and  thus  to  demon- 
strate the  principle  and  the  rule  of  spiritual  science  and  meta- 
physical healing — Christian  Science. 

She  declared  that  her  search  for  a  positive  rule  was  calm 
and  buoyant,  not  selfish  nor  depressing.  She  knew  that  all 
action  and  power  belong  to  God  and  that  cures  had  been  pro- 
duced in  primitive  Christianity  healing  by  holy,  uplifting  faith, 
and  she  won  her  way  to  absolute  conclusions  through  divine 
revelation,  reason  and  demonstration.  She  beheld  the  reason 
why  the  Master  did  not  question  those  He  healed  as  to  symp- 
toms of  disease,  and  why  He  neither  demanded  obedience  to 
hygienic  laws  nor  prescribed  drugs  to  support  the  divine  power 
which  heals.  Her  ability  to  perceive  this  she  attributes  to 
God,  who  had  been  fitting  her  during  many  years  for  the  re- 
ception of  the  message  and  the  mission. 

She  insisted  that  Jesus  demonstrated  the  power  of  healing 
human  minds  and  bodies,  but  that  His  power  was  lost  to  sight 
and  must  again  be  spiritually  discerned,  taught  and  adminis- 
tered according  to  his  command  with  "signs  following";  that 
its  science  must  be  apprehended  by  as  many  as  believe  in  and 
spiritually  understand  Christ.  Jesus'  healing,  she  declares,  was 
spiritual  in  its  nature,  method  and  design.  The  Master 
wrought  the  cure  of  disease  through  the  divine  Mind  which 
gives  all  true  volition,  impulse  and  action,  and  establishes  har- 
mony and  health. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  mission  to  suffering  humanity  is  expressed  in 
the  following  words  quoted  from  Science  and  Health : 

"I  saw  before  me  the  sick,  wearing  out  years  of  servitude 
to  an  unreal  master  in  the  belief  that  the  body  governed  them 
rather  than  Mind." 

"The  lame,  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  the  blind,  the  sick,  the  sen- 
sual, the  sinner,  I  wished  to  save  from  the  slavery  of  their  own 
beliefs  and  from  the  educational  beliefs  of  the  Pharaohs,  who 
to-day  as  of  yore  hold  the  children  of  Israel  in  bondage.     I 

120 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

saw  before  me  the  awful  conflict,  the  Red  Sea  and  the  wilder- 
ness ;  but  I  pressed  on  through  faith  in  God,  trusting  Truth  the 
strong  deliverer  to  guide  me  into  the  land  of  Christian  Science, 
where  fetters  fall  and  the  rights  of  man  are  fully  known  and 
acknowledged." 

The  mission  Christian  Science  has  to  perform  she  expresses 
in  the  following  words:  "Now,  as  in  the  time  of  its  earlier 
demonstration,  its  mission  is  not  primarily  one  of  physical 
healing.  Now,  as  then,  signs  and  wonders  are  wrought  in  the 
metaphysical  healing  of  physical  disease;  but  these  signs  are 
only  to  demonstrate  its  divine  origin, — to  attest  the  reality  of 
the  higher  mission  of  the  Christ-power  to  take  away  the  sins 
of  the  world." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  confidence  in  the  healing  power  of  the  Christ- 
truth  as  promulgated  in  Science  and  Health,  was  so  unbounded 
as  to  impel  the  statement  that  when  scientific  religion  and  divine 
healing  are  adopted  Christian  Science  will  eliminate  sin,  sick- 
ness and  death ;  that  if  given  a  place  in  our  institutions  of  learn- 
ing now  occupied  by  scholastic  theology  and  physiology,  it  will 
eradicate  sin  and  sickness  in  less  time  than  the  old  systems 
devised  for  subduing  them,  have  required  for  self -establishment 
and  propagation.  As  to  her  conviction  concerning  the  verity  of 
the  Science  of  Christianity  as  stated  in  Science  and  Health,  she 
says  that  no  human  pen  nor  tongue  taught  it  to  her,  and  that 
neither  tongue  nor  pen  can  overthrow  it ;  that,  though  her  book 
may  be  distorted  by  shallow  criticism  and  its  ideas  be  tem- 
porarily abused  and  misrepresented,  the  Science  and  Truth 
therein  will  remain  forever  to  be  discerned  and  demonstrated. 
Her  confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  what  she  teaches  is  as  unlim- 
ited as  was  that  of  the  Master  who  declared  "Heaven  and  earth 
shall  pass  away,  but  My  words  shall  not." 

n. — ^The  Christian  Science  Text  Book. 
At  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  one  winter  evening  in  February, 
1866,    Mary    Baker    Eddy,    then    forty- four    years    of    age, 

12t 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

•was  returning  with  her  husband  from  a  meeting  of  Good 
Templars,  when  she  slipped  upon  the  icy  curbstone  and  severely 
injured  her  head  and  her  spine.  She  was  carried  unconscious 
to  the  house  of  a  neighbor,  where  the  usual  remedies  were  ad- 
ministered in  an  endeavor  to  restore  her  to  consciousness.  The 
accident  was  so  severe  that  it  induced  spasms  and  internal  suf- 
fering, which  neither  medicine  nor  surgery  seemed  able  to 
reach.  The  next  morning,  however,  she  insisted  upon  being 
taken  to  her  home  in  Swampscott,  whether  the  physicians  con- 
sented or  not.  Her  removal  was  accomplished  while  she  was  in 
a  partly  unconscious  state,  under  the  influence  of  opiates. 

Finding  no  hope  of  health  on  earth,  she  turned  to  God. 
On  the  third  day  she  requested  her  family  to  give  her  the 
Bible  and  to  leave  the  room.  The  book  opened  at  the  incident 
in  the  New  Testament  where  the  healing  of  the  palsied  man  is 
recorded.  She  was  able  to  appropriate  the  truth  which  set  the 
palsied  man  free.  Becoming  conscious  of  a  divine  illumination 
and  ministration,  she  thereupon  arose,  dressed  herself,  and  to 
the  utter  consternation  of  all  commenced  her  usual  vocation. 
Her  pastor,  who  had  called  to  bid  her  farewell  before  service, 
returned  to  find  her  busy  about  the  house.  This  immediate 
recovery  gave  her  a  positive  conviction  that  there  is  a  scientific 
method  of  obtaining  practical  results  by  unswerving  dependence 
upon  God.  It  was  the  falling  apple  which  led  to  her  discovery 
of  the  science  of  divine  metaphysical  healing,  which  she  after- 
wards named  Christian  Science. 

This  experience  had  been  preceded  by  years  of  invalidism. 
In  her  early  life  she  had  adopted  the  Graham  system  to  cure 
a  chronic  state  of  dyspepsia  and  for  years  ate  bread  and  vege- 
tables and  drank  nothing  but  water.  Her  dyspepsia  increas- 
ing, she  decided  that  her  diet  should  be  more  rigid,  and  there- 
after she  partook  of  but  one  meal  in  twenty-four  hours,  this 
meal  consisting  of  only  a  thin  slice  of  bread  without  water. 
Her  physicians  had  also  recommended  that  she  should  not  wet 

122 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

her  parched  throat  until  three  hours  after  eating.  She  passed 
many  years  in  hunger  and  weakness,  almost  in  starvation ;  and 
then  made  up  her  mind  to  die,  having  exhausted  the  skill  of 
the  doctor,  who  informed  her  that  death  was  her  alternative. 

The  new-born  understanding,  derived  from  her  remarkable 
recovery,  to  which  I  have  alluded,  led  her  to  conclude  that  God 
did  not  make  dyspepsia,  but  that  fear,  hygiene,  physiology  and 
physicians  had  made  her  a  dyspeptic  contrary  to  His  commands. 
From  that  time  forward  she  took  less  thought  about  what  she 
ate  and  drank,  consulted  the  stomach  less  and  God  more  about 
the  economy  of  living,  and  so  recovered  strength  and  flesh 
rapidly.  She  learned  that  food  affects  the  body  only  as  human 
thinking  prescribes;  also  that  thinking  sickness  makes  a  sickly 
body;  whereas  thinking  in  God-planned  channels  reverses  the 
effect  of  wrong  thinking  and  establishes  health. 

Since  the  incident  mentioned,  forty- four  years  have  elapsed, 
Mrs.  Eddy  reached  her  90th  year  of  age  in  unimpaired  health, 
possessed  of  such  mental  and  physical  vigor  and  strength  as  to 
be  able  to  do  a  work  which  challenges  the  wonder  and  admira- 
tion of  mankind. 

II. 

In  a  plain  two-story  house  in  Lynn,  not  far  distant  from 
the  sea,  there  is  a  little,  lonely,  very  plainly  furnished  room 
under  the  eaves,  and  lighted  by  a  trap  casement  window.  It  is 
uncomfortably  hot  in  summer  and  very  cold  in  winter.  The 
stars  look  into  it  and  one  can  hear  the  throb  of  the  ocean.  A 
short  stroll  from  that  home  brings  one  to  an  unfrequented  part 
of  Lynn  beach.  Jutting  into  the  sea  is  a  mass  of  granite  known 
as  Red  Rock.  Seated  here,  one  may  feel  the  mighty  swell  of 
Old  Ocean,  and  may  gaze  far  out  upon  the  broad  expanse,  to 
watch  the  flight  of  gulls  or  the  course  of  passing  vessels. 

As  the  evening  comes  on,  a  gentle  haze  envelopes  the  sea, 

12s 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

hints  of  rose  color  tint  the  waves,  the  twilight  deepens  and  the 
stars  come  forth  in  the  lustrous  heavens.  One  may  feel  the 
quiet  of  the  hour  and  the  stillness,  "soft,  silent  as  the  storm's 
sudden  hush,"  scarcely  disturbed  by  the  stir  and  pulsation  of  the 
city,  which  breaks  upon  the  ear  in  subdued  murmur.  Upon 
this  broad  sweep  of  marine  panorama,  overarched  by  the 
luminous  sky,  the  golden  rays  of  the  setting  sun  slowly  pale 
into  gray;  the  ocean  wrapped  in  contemplation,  seems  vibrat- 
ing in  mysterious  unison  with  nature  in  worship  of  the  de- 
clining sun.  Lingering,  one  may  almost  hear  the  music  of  the 
spheres  and  feel  a  deep  sense  of  peace  and  the  very  presence 
of  the  Infinite. 

**A  magical  stillness ;  on-  earth  quiescence  profound. 
On  the  waters  a  vast  content, 

as  of  hunger  appeased  and  stayed ; 
In  the  heavens  a  silence  that  seems 

not  mere  privation  of  sound 
But  a  thing  with  form  and  body, 

a  thing  to  be  touched  and  weighed." 

— William  Watson. 

A  little  plainly  dressed  woman  came  often  to  these  rocks 
in  the  summer  of  1875.  Gazing  upon  the  outstretched  sea, 
restless  and  storm-tossed  at  times,  with  uplifted  thought  and 
quickened  spiritual  perception,  she  realized  in  the  scene  a 
meaning  which  she  has  voiced  in  poetic  measures: 

"And  o'er  earth's  troubled,  angry  sea, 

I  see  Christ  walk. 
And  come  to  me,  and  tenderly. 

Divinely  talk. 

"Thus  Truth  engrounds  me  on  the  Rock 

Upon  Life's  shore, 
'Gainst  which  the  winds  and  waves  can  shock, 

Oh,  nevermore !" 

— Miscellaneous  Writings,  page  397. 

124 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

In  such  supreme  moments,  in  transcendent  mood,  there 
came  to  her  visions  of  a  fairer  world  than  this  material  earth, 
a  realm  of  finer  forces  and  skies  with  wider  horizon.  Here, 
in  the  gathering  twilight  there  came  the  sound  of  "gentle 
stillness."  Here,  like  the  prophets  of  olden  time,  she  com- 
muned with  God ;  to  her  there  came  the  inrush  of  divine  illum- 
ination and  inspiration. 

On  the  jutting  rocks  of  Lynn  beach,  and  in  her  little  attic 
room  on  Broad  street,  in  hours  of  spiritual  exaltation,  this 
woman  toiled  with  patience  and  unflinching  determination, 
sustained  and  guided  by  the  divine  wisdom  and  strength,  that 
"through  divine  revelation,  reason  and  demonstration"  she 
might  give  to  the  world  the  doctrines  contained  in  her  book, 
Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.  In  that  little 
attic  room,  during  the  summer  of  1875,  she  completed  the 
manuscript  and,  later  in  that  same  year,  published  the  first 
edition  of  one  thousand  copies.  To  its  preparation  she  gave 
nine  years  of  her  life,  years  filled  with  unremitting  toil  and 
sacrifice,  and  almost  hopeless  struggle. 

Concerning  her  choice  of  a  name  for  the  book,  Mrs.  Eddy 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  her  experience  in  the  following  illuminat- 
ing passage  condensed  from  her  Miscellaneous  Writings: 

"Six  weeks  I  waited  on  God  to  suggest  a  name  for  the 
book  I  had  been  writing.  The  title  Science  and  Health  came 
to  me  when  the  steadfast  stars  watched  over  the  night  and 
when  slumber  had  fled.  I  arose  and  recorded  the  hallowed 
suggestion.  The  following  day  I  showed  it  to  some  of  my 
literary  friends,  who  advised  me  to  drop  both  book  and  title. 
To  this,  however,  I  gave  no  heed,  feeling  sure  that  God  had 
led  me  to  write  that  book,  and  whispered  that  name  to  my 
waiting  hope  and  prayer.  It  was  to  me  the  still,  small  voice 
that  came  to  Elijah  after  the  earthquake  and  the  fire." 

During  these  nine  years  she  had  also  labored  in  almost 
heart-breaking  isolation  and  opposition  to  give  to  the  world 

12s 


OF"  TWk 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  metaphysical  system  of  heaHng,  contained  in  her  book, 
and  to  demonstrate  the  Divine  Principle  in  the  healing  of  the 
sick.  She  insisted  that  a  more  practical  Christianity,  demon- 
strating justice  and  meeting  huma'n  want  in  sickness  and  in 
health  has  been  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  age ;  she  declared 
that  she  had  demonstrated  through  Christian  Science,  by  prac- 
tical tests,  that  Truth  has  lost  none  of  its  divine  healing  efficacy, 
even  though  centuries  have  passed  since  Jesus  practised  the 
rules  on  the  hills  of  Judea  and  in  the  valleys  of  Galilee. 

Mrs.  Eddy  traveled  no  flowery  paths  of  ease  in  her  efforts 
to  promulgate  her  doctrines  or  to  demonstrate  the  principle 
of  healing  as  taught  in  her  book.  The  little  home  in  Lynn, 
instead  of  becoming  as  she  had  hoped  when  she  bought  it,  a 
refuge  from  boarding  house  infelicities,  a  haven  of  security, 
free  from  the  distractions  of  worldly  interests,  became  a  very 
storm  centre.  There  she  encountered  agitation  and  discord 
among  her  students,  malicious  interference  of  those  she  re- 
garded as  friends,  the  disaffection  and  withdrawal  of  a  large 
group  of  her  followers  and  the  failure  of  the  second  edition  of 
her  book.  Concerning  this  period  she  has  written:  "to  pre- 
serve a  long  course  of  years,  still  and  uniform,  amid  the  uni- 
form darkness  of  storm  and  cloud  and  tempest,  requires 
strength  from  above — deep  draughts  from  the  fount  of  Divine 
Love — the  spiritual  glow  and  grandeur  of  a  consecrated  life, 
where  dwelleth  peace,  sacred  and  sincere,  in  trial  and 
triumph." 

in. 

Inception  of  the  Christian  Science  Church. 

Four  years  after  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health, 
in  the  spring  of  1879,  a  little  band  of  twenty-six  "earnest 
seekers  after  truth"  met  under  the  leadership  of  this  heroic 
woman.  They  had  all  been  members  of  evangelical  churches, 
but  had  become  students  of  the  doctrines  laid  down  in  Science 

126 


THE   FOUNDER.    OF   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

and  Health,  zvitJi  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  and  had  become  known 
as  Christian  Scientists.  The  purpose  of  this  gathering  was  to 
organize  a  church  that  should  "commemorate  the  words  and 
works  of  our  Master,"  and  be  without  a  creed.  It  undertook, 
against  the  most  tremendous  odds,  the  seemingly  impossible 
task  of  establishing  a  religious  organization  that  should  rein- 
state primitive  Christianity  and  restore  the  lost  element  of 
healing,  which  Jesus,  the  apostles  and  early  followers  had 
practised,  despite  the  fact  that  this  healing  power  had  been 
absolutely  lost  to  orthodox  Christianity  for  seventeen  centuries. 

The  text-book  of  this  church  was  to  be  the  Word  of  God, 
as  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  with  Science  and  Health 
as  the  key  to  its  spiritual  interpretation.  The  church  was  to  be 
built  "on  the  Rock  Christ  Jesus,  even  the  understanding  and 
demonstration  of  Divine  Life,  Truth  and  Love,  healing  and 
saving  the  world  from  sin  and  death,  thus  to  reflect  in  some 
degree  the  church  universal  and  triumphant."  Its  chief  cor- 
ner-stone is  Christian  Science,  as  taught  and  demonstrated 
by  the  Master,  even  that  Truth  which  casts  out  error,  heals 
the  sick  and  restores  the  lost  Israel,  for  "the  stone  which  the 
builders  rejected,  the  same  has  become  the  head  of  the  corner." 

The  Christian  Science  Church  began  its  career  in  a  world 
full  of  materialism,  in  the  face  of  an  orthodox  Christianity 
which  for  centuries  had  taught  that  Jesus  healed  disease  on  a 
miraculous  basis  and  that  such  healing  was  for  his  time  only; 
an  orthodoxy  which  had  deliberately  ignored  the  command 
Jesus  gave  His  followers  to  heal  the  sick  by  the  same  means 
which  He  employed,  i.  e.,  by  the  power  of  the  Divine  Mind. 
The  church  was  opposed  by  a  priesthood  and  ministerial  class 
which  rejects  the  present  possibility  of  healing  works  and  re- 
sorts to  materia  medica  in  case  of  illness;  which  maintains 
the  reality  of  sin  and  suffering  as  God-ordained  necessities  in 
human  experience;  which  clings  tenaciously  to  the  behef  that 
sickness,  sorrow  and  death  are  within  the  compass  of  divine 

127 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

economy,  and  for  an  infinitely  good  purpose ;  and  which  resents 
any  interference  with  its  cherished  beHefs,  creeds  or  dogmas 
as  offensive  both  to  itself  and  to  God. 

Ridiculed,  abused  and  misrepresented  by  both  pulpit  and 
press,  this  little  band  of  followers,  under  the  inspiration  and 
leadership  of  a  devoted  woman,  undertook  the  seemingly  im- 
possible task  of  inaugurating  a  new  religion  whose  text-book 
contains  doctrines  which  antagonize  not  only  the  philosophic 
but  the  scientific  and  the  religious  teachings  of  the  ages.  For 
this  little  body  of  believers  to  challenge  the  world  to  battle 
over  the  issues  formulated  in  that  book  and  over  the  works  of 
healing  the  sick,  destroying  evil  and  revealing  universal  har- 
mony, was  apparently  to  invite  an  ignominious  defeat.  This 
religious  movement  was  to  encounter  not  only  the  opposition 
of  church  and  state  and  the  hostility  of  the  press,  the  clergy, 
the  medical  professor,  and  philosophic  writers,  but  to  suffer 
from  internal  troubles  and  defections  and  to  be  unmercifully 
criticized,  abused  and  misrepresented. 

It  was  a  movement  utterly  insignificant  in  its  beginnings. 
In  fact,  the  undertaking  was  termed  the  rankest  religious 
lunacy  of  any  age,  and  was  characterized  as  the  product  of  a 
disordered  mind.  Its  followers  were  described  as  dupes  and 
devotees  of  a  metaphysical  witch  and  siren,  false  to  Jesus' 
teachings.  It  is  small  wonder  that  the  world  looked  on  in 
derision ;  that  it  ridiculed  these  so-called  vagaries  of  a  woman's 
brain  and  predicted  an  early  collapse  of  this  new  religious 
movement. 

That  Mrs.  Eddy  was  prepared,  in  a  measure,  for  the  bitter 
hostility,  persecution  and  abuse  which  she  had  to  endure  as  the 
founder  of  Christian  Science,  is  evident  from  the  following 
prophetic  extracts  from  her  writings: 

"Christian  Science  and  the  senses  are  at  war.  It  is  a  revo- 
lutionary struggle.  We  have  already  had  two  in  this  nation 
and  they  began  and  ended  in  a  contest  for  the  true  idea — for 

128 


THE  FOUNDER   OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

human  liberty  and  rights.     Now  cometh  a  third  struggle  for 
the  freedom  of  health,  holiness  and  the  attainment  of  heaven. 

"Because  the  Science  of  Mind  seems  to  bring  into  dishonor 
the  ordinary  scientific  schools,  wrestling  with  material  obser- 
vation alone,  this  science  has  met  with  opposition;  but  if  any 
system  honors  God,  it  ought  to  receive  aid,  not  opposition, 
from  all  thinking  people.  And  Christian  Science  does  honor 
God,  as  no  other  theory  honors  Him;  and  it  does  this  in  the 
way  of  His  appointing,  by  doing  many  wonderful  works 
through  the  Divine  name  and  nature." 


i2P 


IV. 

THE   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE   CHURCH    SYSTEM    OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

ONE  pauses  to  marvel  at  the  courage  and  the  genius  of 
the  woman  who  has  been  able  to  build  up  a  religious 
organization,  in  which  unity  of  doctrine  is  paralleled  by  re- 
markable unity  of  discipline  and  whose  system  of  government 
is  the  most  perfectly  devised,  closely  guarded  and  smoothly 
working  of  any  church  in  the  world.  How  she  did  it  is  now  a 
matter  of  history,  which  we  may  profitably  study  as  to  some  of 
its  features. 

First  to  be  noted  is  the  fact  that  the  church  is  undenomi- 
national. It  has  no  distinctive  theological  creed,  but  is  welded 
into  a  harmonious  whole  by  the  adoption  of  certain  religious 
postulates  or  tenets,  as  they  are  called ;  tenets  which  form  the 
church  platform  and  command  the  acceptance  of  every  mem- 
ber. They  were  drawn  up  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  each  branch 
church  and  society  accepts  them  as  the  profession  of  its  reli- 
gious faith  and  doctrine.  There  are  no  sects  or  schisms  in 
the  Christian  Science  Church.  The.  tenets  are  given  in  Science 
and  Health  as  follows: 

1.  As  adherents  of  Truth,  we  take  the  inspired  Word  of 
the  Bible  as  our  sufficient  guide  to  eternal  life. 

2.  We  acknowledge  and  adore  one  supreme  and  infinite 
God.  We  acknowledge  His  Son,  one  Christ;  the  Holy  Ghost 
or  divine  Comforter;    and  man  in  God's  image  and  likeness. 

3.  We  acknowledge  God's  forgiveness  of  sin  in  the  de- 
struction of  sin  and  the  spiritual  understanding  that  casts  out 
evil  as  unreal.  But  the  belief  in  sin  is  punished  as  long  as  the 
belief  lasts. 

130 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

4.  We  acknowledge  Jesus'  atonement  as  the  evidence  of 
divine  efficacious  Love,  unfolding  man's  unity  with  God 
through  Christ  Jesus  the  way-shower;  and  we  acknowledge 
that  man  is  saved  through  Christ,  through  Truth,  Life  and 
Love,  as  demonstrated  by  the  Galilean  Prophet  in  healing  the 
sick  and  overcoming  sin  and  death. 

5.  We  acknowledge  that  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  and  his 
resurrection  served  to  uplift  faith  to  understanding  eternal 
Life,  even  the  allness  of  Soul,  Spirit  and  the  nothingness  of 
matter. 

6.  And  we  solemnly  promise  to  watch  and  pray  for  that 
Mind  to  be  in  us  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus ;  to  do  unto 
others  as  we  would  have  them  do  unto  us ;  and  to  be  merciful, 
just  and  pure. 

The  rules  and  regulations  of  the  church  comprised  in  the 
Church  Manual  in  the  form  of  by-laws  cover  the  whole  system 
of  government.  They  were  drawn  by  Mrs.  Eddy  from  time 
to  time  as  occasion  required.  In  general  they  outline  the 
details  of  qualification  for  membership,  officers'  duties,  meet- 
ings, services,  guardianship  of  funds,  teaching  of  Christian 
Science,  guidance  of  members,  discipline  and  obedience,  organi- 
zation of  branch  churches,  publishing  society,  board  of  educa- 
tion, board  of  lectureship,  association  of  teachers,  missionaries, 
committees  on  publication,  reading  rooms,  church  building,  etc. 

These  by-laws  are  unique  in  the  history  of  organized  reli- 
gious bodies  and  in  the  further  fact  that  they  are  the  work  of 
one  person  whose  position  is  loyally  accepted  as  the  founder 
and  head  of  the  Christian  Science  Church.  They  originated, 
Mrs.  Eddy  states,  "not  in  solemn  conclave  as  in  ancient  San- 
hedrim. They  were  not  arbitrary  opinions  nor  dictatorial 
demands,  such  as  one  person  might  impose  on  another.  They 
were  impelled  by  a  power  not  one's  own,  were  written  at  dif- 
ferent dates,  and  as  occasion  required.  They  sprang  from 
necessity,  the  logic  of  events, — from  the  immediate  demand  for 
them  as  a  help  that  must  be  supplied  to  maintain  the  dignity 
and  defence  of  our  cause;   hence  their  simple,  scientific  basis, 

131 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

and  detail  so  requisite  to  demonstrate  genuine  Christian 
Science,  and  which  will  do  for  the  race  what  absolute  doctrines 
destined  for  future  generations  might  not  accomplish." 

Through  these  by-laws  each  church  retains  its  individual 
independence  in  the  conduct  of  its  own  aflfairs.  Centralized 
ecclesiastical  paternalism  or  domination  is  made  practically 
impossible  by  the  following  rule  of  the  Manual  of  the  Mother 
Church : 

"The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  Mass., 
shall  assume  no  general  official  control  of  other  churches  of 
this  denomination;  and  it  shall  be  officially  controlled  by  no 
other  church. 

"This  is  the  denominational  rule  of  Christian  Science.  Each 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  shall  have  its  own  form  of  govern- 
ment." 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  a  believer 
in  material  organization  as  expressive  of  the  real  Christian 
compact,  which  is  love.  "The  church,"  she  declares,  "is  that 
institution,  which  affords  proof  of  its  utility  and  is  found  ele- 
vating the  race,  routing  the  dormant  understanding  from  ma- 
terial beliefs  to  the  apprehension  of  spiritual  ideas  and  the 
demonstration  of  divine  Science,  thereby  casting  out  devils, 
or  error,  and  healing  the  sick."^ 

She  also  writes,  "It  is  not  indispensable  to  organize  materi- 
ally Christ's  church.  It  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  ordain 
pastors,  and  to  dedicate  churches;  but  if  this  is  done,  let  it  be 
in  concession  to  the  period,  not  as  a  perpetual  or  indispensable 
ceremonial  of  the  church.  If  our  church  is  organized,  it  is 
to  meet  the  demand,  'Suffer  it  to  be  so  now.'  The  real  Chris- 
tian compact  is  love  for  one  another.  This  bond  is  wholly 
spiritual  and  inviolate."^ 

Of  the  church  universal,  Mrs.  Eddy  writes :    "The  Church, 


*  Science  and  Health,  page  583. 
^^Miscellaneous  Writings,  page  91. 


132 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

more  than  any  other  institution,  at  present  is  the  cement  of 
society,  and  it  should  be  the  bulwark  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  But  the  time  cometh  when  the  religious  element,  or 
Church  of  Christ,  shall  exist  alone  in  the  affections,  and  need 
no  organization  to  express  it.  Till  then,  this  form  of  godliness 
seems  as  requisite  to  manifest  its  spirit,  as  individuality  to  ex- 
press Soul  and  Substance."^ 

Mrs.  Eddy's  views  concerning  the  ministerial  profession 
and  preaching  services  are  equally  pronounced.  They  are  ex- 
pressed in  a  most  daring  innovation,  no  less  than  the  abolition 
of  all  priestly  functions  in  the  services  of  the  church.  The 
Christian  Science  Church  has  no  ministers  nor  professional 
expounders  of  the  word  of  God.  In  Article  xiii.  Section  i, 
of  the  By-Laws,  Mrs.  Eddy  ordains  the  Bible  and  Science  and 
Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures  as  Pastor  over  the  Mother 
Church  and  the  branches  and  declares  that  they  will  continue 
to  preach  for  the  church  and  the  world. 

*'It  is  true,"  she  declares,  ''that  I  have  made  the  Bible  and 
Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  the  pastor  for 
all  the  churches  of  the  Christian  Science  denomination,  but 
that  does  not  make  it  impossible  for  this  pastor  of  ours  to 
preach. 

"To  my  sense,  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  read  each  Sunday 
without  comment  and  obeyed  throughout  the  week  would  be 
enough  for  Christian  practice.  The  word  of  God  is  a  powerful 
preacher,  and  it  is  not  too  spiritual  to  be  practical,  nor  too  trans- 
cendental to  be  heard  and  understood. 

"Whoever  saith  there  is  no  sermon  without  personal 
preaching,  forgets  that  Christian  Scientists  do  not,  namely,  that 
God  is  a  person  and  that  we  should  be  willing  to  hear  a  sermon 
from  this  personal  God." 

While  stately  edifices  in  many  places  mark  the  onward 
march  of  the  Christian  Science  Church,  they  are  regarded  as 
but  the  type  and  symbol  of  the  universal  Christian  church. 

^Miscellaneous  Writings,  page   145. 

133 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

They  are  erected  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  represent  the  vvilUng 
offerings  and  sacrifices  of  thousands  of  believers  who  have 
been  benefited  by  Christian  Science.  In  general  structure  the 
Christian  Science  Church  follows  closely  the  system  of  govern- 
ment adopted  by  our  American  commonwealth,  viz.,  a  federa- 
tion of  states  individually  related  to  the  central  government. 
Federal  authority  over  the  whole  union  and  local  sovereignty 
over  the  individual  states  are  shown  to  be  not  only  non-antag- 
onistic, but  mutually  strengthening  and  jointly  operative.  This 
principle  and  rule  are  exemplified  in  the  formation  and  pro- 
gressive development  of  the  Christian  Science  Church.  ^ 

The  branch  churches  have  their  own  rules  and  by-laws  as 
local  needs  demand.  They  discipline  their  own  members,  main- 
tain their  own  churches  and  organizations,  and  support  the 
general  cause  and  the  general  church.  As  perhaps  a  majority 
of  branch  church  members  are  also  members  of  the  Mother 
Church,  they  come  under  the  rules  of  membership  of  this 
church  as  set  forth  in  the  Manual,  in  the  same  way  that  the 
resident  of  a  particular  state  or  territory  of  the  American 
union  is  subject  not  only  to  state  and  territorial  law,  but  to  that 
of  the  National  constitution  as  well. 

Attendance  at  the  public  services,  educational  lectures  given 
by  the  authorized  lecturers,  the  study  of  the  Text  Book,  the 
publications  of  the  Christian  Science  Publication  Society  and 
Mrs.  Eddy's  writings,  are  the  methods  relied  upon  for  the 
spread  of  the  movement.  All  these  avenues  of  numerical 
accession  are  normal  ones  and  at  no  point  approach  revivalistic 
or  sensational  methods,  rather  are  they  self-sustained  and  rep- 
resentative of  a  religion  of  works. 

Christian  Science  embraces  a  large  body  of  practical  Chris- 
tian workers,  including  teachers,  lecturers,  publication  com- 
mittees, readers,  and  practitioners  of  Christian  healing.  It 
has  no  exclusive  priesthood  or  separated  ministry.  The  two 
church  readers  for  each  church,  usually  a  man  and  a  woman 

134 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

elected  from  the  ranks  of  the  local  church  membership  for  a 
period  of  three  years,  are  not  eligible  to  re-election.  The  same 
applies  to  the  board  of  trustees,  each  member  of  which  can 
serve  only  a  three-year  term.  This  guards  effectually  against 
the  building  of  a  personal  control  in  the  affairs  of  the  church. 

In  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  of  May  22,  1909,  Mrs. 
Eddy  further  confirms  the  freedom  of  local  government  by  a 
brief  and  significant  proclamation,  as  follows:  'Tn  Christian 
Science  each  branch  church  shall  be  distinctly  democratic  in 
its  government.  It  has  been  well  said  that  of  all  the  different 
forms  of  government  which  have  existed,  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment, on  the  plan  of  that  which  has  been  established  in  the 
United  States,  is  believed  to  be  the  best  adapted  to  secure  the 
liberties  of  a  people  and  to  promote  the  general  welfare." 

In  Christian  Science  a  higher  law  than  any  ever  instituted 
by  man  is  made  the  basis  of  the  government  of  the  church, 
it  is  stated  in  Science  and  Health,  page  106,  as  follows:  "God 
has  endowed  man  with  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are 
self-government,  reason,  and  conscience.  Man  is  properly 
self-governed  only  when  he  is  guided  rightly  and  governed  by 
his  Maker,  divine  Truth  and  Love."  The  Christian  Science 
ministry  is  therefore  a  lay  ministry;  the  church  services  are 
not  realistic  but  congregational  and  uniform  in  procedure  and 
character.  At  each  Sunday  service  the  following  explanatory 
note  is  read  by  the  First  Reader  before  beginning  the  lesson- 
sermon  : 

"The  canonical  writings,  together  with  the  word  of  our 
text-book,  corroborating  and  explaining  the  Bible  texts  in  their 
spiritual  import  and  application  to  all  ages,  past,  present  and 
future — constitute  a  sermon  undivorced  from  truth,  uncon- 
taminated  and  unfettered  by  human  hypothesis,  and  divinely 
authorized." 

The  lesson-sermons  are  arranged  by  a  Bible  lesson  commit- 
tee appointed  by  the  authorities  of  the  Mother  Church.    They 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

are  on  selected  subjects,  consist  of  passages  from  the  Bible, 
with  correlative  passages  from  the  Christian  Science  Text- 
Book,  and  are  read  from  the  pulpit  by  the  two  readers.  Sim- 
plicity and  impersonal  instruction  are  thus  secured  and  the 
dangers  of  listening  to  mere  opinion  and  personal  deduction 
are  averted. 

Instead  of  the  customary  doxology  of  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity, the  closing  exercise  consists  of  the  repetition  of  what 
is  termed  the  Scientific  Statement  of  Being,  followed  by  the 
first  three  verses  of  the  third  chapter  of  St.  John's  first 
Epistle,  and  a  benediction  quoted  from  the  Bible.  Taken  to- 
gether they  constitute  an  impressive  conclusion  of  the  services. 
The  Scientific  Statement  of  Being  and  the  verses  from  St. 
John  which  follow  are  the  very  essence  of  Christian  Science. 

"There  is  no  life,  truth,  intelligence,  nor  substance  in  mat- 
ter. All  is  infinite  Mind  and  its  infinite  manifestation,  for  God 
is  All-in-all.  Spirit  is  immortal  Truth ;  matter  is  mortal  error. 
Spirit  is  the  real  and  eternal ;  matter  is  the  unreal  and  tem- 
poral. Spirit  is  God,  and  man  is  His  image  and  likeness. 
Therefore  man  is  not  material ;  he  is  spiritual."^ 

"Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed 
upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God;  therefore 
the  world  knoweth  us  not,  because  it  knew  Him  not.  Beloved, 
now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be :  but  we  know  that,  when  He  shall  appear,  we  shall 
be  like  Him ;  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.  And  every  man 
that  hath  this  hope  in  Him  purifieth  himself,  even  as  He  is 
pure."2 

The  observance  of  the  Sacrament  or  Lord's  supper  differs 
from  the  practice  of  other  religious  denominations  in  being  a 
commemoration  not  of  Jesus'  last  supper  with  the  disciples, 
but  of  the  breakfast  after  the  ascension.  The  Passover,  which 
Jesus  ate  with  His  disciples  on  the  night  before  His  crucifixion 
was  a  sad  supper  which  closed  forever  Jesus'  concession  to  ritu- 
alism.   The  Christian  Science  communion  service  commemo- 

^  Science  and  Health,  page  468. 
^ist  John  HI,  1-3. 

136 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

rates  the  spiritual  meeting  of  the  Saviour  and  the  disciples  after 
the  resurrection  in  the  bright  morning  hours  on  the  shores  of 
the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  the  morning  meal  which  they  shared 
in  the  dawn  of  a  new  light.  The  service  is  without  the  use  of 
material  emblems.  It  is  wholly  spiritual.  "If  Christ,  Truth, 
has  come  to  us  in  demonstration,  no  other  commemoration  is 
requisite,  for  demonstration  is  Immanuel,  or  God  With  Us; 
and  if  a  friend  be  with  us,  why  need  we  memorials  of  that 
friend?"^ 

In  that  service,  Christian  Scientists  "bow  before  Christ, 
Truth,  to  receive  more  of  his  reappearing  and  silently  to  com- 
mune with  the  divine  Principle,  Love.  They  celebrate  their 
Lord's  victory  over  death,  his  probation  in  the  flesh  after 
death,  its  exemplification  of  human  probation,  and  his  spirit- 
ual and  final  ascension  above  matter,  or  the  flesh,  when  he  rose 
out  of  material  sight."^ 

Like  the  Communion  Service,  so  with  the  Baptismal  Ser- 
vice. There  is  no  provision  in  the  church  order  of  service  for 
observance  of  the  rite  of  baptism  by  outward  forms,  either  by 
sprinkling  or  by  immersion.  Baptism  is  defined  as  a  spiritual 
or  new  birth,  and  is  interpreted  as  a  purification  from  error. 
"The  baptism  of  Spirit,  washing  the  body  of  all  the  impurities 
of  the  flesh,  signifies  that  the  pure  in  heart  see  God  and  are 
approaching  spiritual  life  and  its  demonstration."^ 

Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  on  the  subject  of  audible  prayer  are 
outlined  at  length  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Christian  Science 
Text-Book.  In  the  Christian  Science  services,  both  on  the 
Sabbath  and  on  Wednesday  evenings,  no  audible  prayers  except 
the  Lord's  prayer  are  oflFered,  but  provision  is  made  for  silent 
prayer  as  a  regular  part  of  the  exercise. 

The  position  of  the  Church  Reader  is  a  revival  of  an  an- 
cient church  oflice.     The  Christian  Science  Church  maintains 


^Science  and  Health,  page  34. 
-Tbid,  page  35. 
^Ibid,  page  241. 

137 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

no  choir.  Its  musical  services  are  rendered  by  a  soloist,  the 
organist  and  the  congregation.  Twenty-six  lesson-sermons  are 
taken  for  the  twenty-six  Sundays  of  the  first  six  months  of  the 
year.  Each  of  these  is  made  up  of  a  Golden  Text,  a  selection 
from  the  Scriptures  for  responsive  reading,  and  correlative 
passages  from  the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health.  These  selec- 
tions are  read  alternately  by  the  Second  and  the  First  Readers, 
respectively,  without  comment.  The  same  subjects  are  re- 
peated for  the  closing  six  months  of  the  year,  but  with  different 
passages  from  the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health.  This  is  the 
uniform  service  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  throughout 
the  world. 

The  fact  that  the  lesson-sermon  is  studied  at  home  each 
day  of  the  week,  preliminary  to  the  Sunday  services,  warrants 
the  remark  that  nothing  in  any  other  religious  denomination 
approaches  this  simplicity  and  unity  of  service  and  thorough 
study  of  the  Bible  by  the  membership. 

The  mid-week  testimony  meetings  of  Christian  Scientists 
are  led  by  the  First  Reader.  Those  who  have  been  healed  or 
who  have  been  transformed  or  reformed  by  Christian  Science 
influences  bear  testimony  with  grateful  hearts  to  these  benefits. 
These  mid-week  services  are  filled  with  Christian  Scientists 
and  others  interested.  The  attendance  equals  and  in  many 
cases  exceeds  the  attendance  at  the  Sunday  services.  Church 
sittings  are  free  to  all.  The  Sabbath  morning  service  affords 
the  remarkable  spectacle  of  churches  often  crowded  to  their 
fullest  capacity,  to  hear  a  simple  lesson-sermon,  without  a 
preaching  service  and  with  an  absence  of  elaborate  musical 
programme,  oratory  or  sensationalism.  More  remarkable  still, 
the  same  simple  service  is  repeated  in  the  evening  to  the  same 
body  of  earnest  Christian  students. 

The  Christian  Science  Church  maintains  between  five  hun- 
dred and  six  hundred  free  reading  rooms,  besides  an  extensive 
system  for  the  free  distribution  of  Christian  Science  literature. 

138 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

Christian  Science  has  not  only  a  simple  democratic  founda- 
tion; it  represents  the  application,  on  a  large  scale,  of  the 
methods  and  means  of  the  early  church  to  the  needs  of 
humanity  as  these  exist  to-day.  In  its  inception  and  develop- 
ment the  founder  has  nowhere  better  displayed  her  genius  than 
in  her  choice  of  the  best  features  of  other  Christian  denomina- 
tions and  in  her  ability  to  create  and  organize  a  Christian 
brotherhood,  analogous  to  the  apostolic  church,  that  should  be 
democratic,  independent,  congregational.  "It  is  cemented  to- 
gether," says  Carol  Norton,  "not  by  dogma,  organic  authority, 
or  officialism,  but  by  the  tenets  of  a  common  faith  and  the 
scientific  unity  deduced  from  an  exact  metaphysical  premise 
and  its  resultant  proof.  Creed,  form,  ceremony,  and  traditional 
ecclesiastical  authority  find  no  place  in  the  religion  of  Chris- 
tian Science ;  and  its  founder  and  all  authorized  teachers  place 
no  stress  on  materialistic,  philosophical  speculation,  or  guess- 
ing, in  the  realm  of  its  curative  therapeutics.  It  is  an  exact 
mental  science,  and  as  such  proves  itself." 

A  distinguishing  feature  of  the  membership  of  the  Chris- 
tian Science  Church  is  loyalty  to  the  founderof  the  Church  and 
to  the  regulations  for  personal  guidance  which  the  by-laws  pre- 
scribe. These  by-laws,  it  may  be  remarked,  form  a  code  of 
Christian  living  which  finds  an  astonishing  degree  of  con- 
formity in  the  lives  of  Christian  Scientists. 

In  the  face  of  widespread  misrepresentation  and  persecu- 
tion, Mrs.  Eddy  has  inculcated  the  spirit  of  non-resistance 
according  to  the  standards  of  Jesus.  A  policy  of  non-retalia- 
tion marks  the  ways  and  means  of  establishing  Christian 
Science.  The  following  church  by-laws  from  the  Manual  illus- 
trate this  point : 

"A  member  of  this  church  shall  not  publish  nor  cause  to 
be  published  an  article  that  is  uncharitable  or  impertinent  to- 
wards religion,  medicine,  the  courts,  or  the  laws  of  the  land." 

"Neither  animosity,  nor  mere  personal  attachment,  should 
impel  the  motives  or  acts  of    the  members  of    the    Mother 

139 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Church.  In  Science,  divine  Love  alone  governs  man;  and  a 
Christian  Scientist  reflects  the  sweet  amenities  of  Love,  in 
rebuking  sin,  in  true  brotherliness,  charitableness,  and  forgive- 
ness. The  members  of  this  church  should  daily  watch  and 
pray  to  be  delivered  from  all  evil,  from  prophesying,  judging, 
condemning,  counseling,  influencing  or  being  influenced  erro- 
neously." 

The  second,  a  rule  for  motives  and  acts,  is  required  to  be 
read  at  each  service  on  the  first  Sunday  of  each  month  in  the 
Mother  Church  and  the  branch  churches : 

"He  who  dated  the  Christian  era  is  the  ensample  in  Chris- 
tian Science.  Careless  comparison,  or  irreverent  references  to 
Christ  Jesus  is  abnormal  in  the  Christian  Scientist,  and  is  pro- 
hibited. When  it  is  necessary  to  show  the  great  gulf  between 
Christian  Science  and  theosophy,  hypnotism  or  spiritualism, 
do  it,  but  without  hard  words.  The  wise  man  saith,  'A  soft 
answer  turneth  away  wrath.'  However  despitefully  used  and 
misrepresented  by  the  churches  or  the  press,  in  return  employ 
no  violent  invective,  and  do  good  unto  your  enemies  when  the 
opportunity  occurs." 

The  last  rule  is  made  so  imperative  that  any  departure 
from  it  disqualifies  a  member  for  office  in  the  church  or  the 
Board  of  Lectureship  and  renders  him  liable  to  discipline  and 
possibly  dismissal  from  the  Mother  Church. 

The  financial  plan  of  maintaining  the  Mother  Church  is  the 
perfection  of  democratic  simplicity.  It  calls  for  a  regular  con- 
tribution of  only  $i.oo  per  annum  from  its  membership.  This 
method  obviates  the  necessity  of  begging  appeals  for  funds. 
It  lays  no  onerous  burdens  upon  a  few,  but  gives  each  member 
an  opportunity  to  contribute  to  the  financial  support  of  the 
church  in  a  manner  that  involves  no  hardship. 

The  fraternal  spirit  among  Christian  Scientists  is  a  distin- 
guishing feature  of  the  Church.  In  no  ethical  or  brotherhood 
society  and  in  none  of  the  orthodox  churches  is  this  spirit  so 
noticeable  or  characteristic.  The  institution  of  a  body  of 
Christian   Science    practitioners    connected  with    the    several 

140 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

churches  whose  names  and  addresses  are  published  monthly  in 
the  Christian  Science  Journal,  put  Christian  Scientists  in  touch 
with  every  local  church  and  society  in  the  world.  In  case  of  re- 
moval to  a  different  city  it  establishes  a  bond  of  unity  and  a 
spirit  of  helpfulness  which  ties  all  Scientists  together  and 
makes  them  one  body  of  believers, — fellow-members  and  fel- 
low-worshippers. 


141 


/ 


V. 

SIMILARITY    BETWEEN    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRIS- 
TIAN CHURCH  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

THE  early  Christian  church  was  a  society;  a  free  and 
ordered  brotherhood ;  a  true  democracy.  It  was  founded 
upon  the  teachings  of  Christ  Jesus,  the  greatest  socialist  who 
ever  lived.  The  society  Jesus  formed  had  no  recognition,  place 
nor  permanency  for  sorrow  or  suffering  as  irremediable  phases 
of  human  existence  or  as  realities  of  being.  His  healing  min- 
istry was  a  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  they  were  no  part 
of  God's  creation.  Every  evil  he  sought  to  remove ;  every  dis- 
ease he  loved  to  heal.  His  whole  aim  was  to  inculcate  the 
understanding  which  could,  and  so  far  as  He  was  understood, 
did  eliminate  them. 

The  highest  possible  ethical  ideal  or  standard  of  conduct, 
love  for  humanity,  was  the  foundation  and  the  superstructure 
of  the  early  Christian  church.  It  promoted  the  general  wel- 
fare; it  made  the  concern  of  the  individual  the  concern  of  the 
whole  community ;  it  established  an  equality  of  possession  and 
of  ministry  to  each  man's  needs ;  it  brought  healing  to  the  sick, 
and  satisfaction  to  mind  and  heart ;  it  proclaimed  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  as  a  condition  at  hand,  and  not  as  belonging  to  a 
distant  and  uncertain  future.  Its  relation  was  not  merely  a 
relationship  to  God ;  it  included  relationship  to  men,  a  fellow- 
ship, and  brotherly  compassion  which  made  its  ministry  to 
others'  needs  expressions  of  the  love  of  God,  dwelling  in  its 
adherents.  It  was  a  religion  the  poor  man  could  understand; 
it  was  a  new  expression  of  fraternity,  of  real  democracy;  it 
expressed  the  spirit  of  cooperation  in  which  the  interest  of  the 
individual  was  the  interest  of  the  whole.     Socialism  can  find 

142 


SIMILARITY  OF  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

no  higher  content  of  life  than  those  ideals  which  were  realized 
by  the  Christian  society  which  Christ  Jesus  established  on 
earth. 

Jesus  instituted  no  form  of  church  government,  nor  do  His 
teachings  afford  any  sanction  for  the  establishment  of  a  priest- 
hood or  ministerial  class.  He  made  no  provision  for  the  divine 
influence  to  be  conveyed  from  one  human  being  to  another, 
but  taught  that  "God  is  a  Spirit:  and  they  that  worship  Him 
must  do  so  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  He  instituted  no  special  in- 
clusive character  of  ecclesiastical  priesthood  as  an  instrument 
or  vehicle  of  divine  mercy.  Nor  did  he  provide  for  a  corpo- 
rate and  divinely  organized  church  having  a  monopoly  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  with  a  set  of  officers  who  should  direct  its  affairs. 
The  institutional  life  of  the  apostolic  church  was  of  the  most 
rudimentary  character.  - 

If  we  turn  to  the  religious  history  of  the  centuries  that  have 
elapsed  since  Anno  Domini  one,  we  find  that  the  nearest  ap- 
proximation to  the  spirit  and  life  of  the  early  Christian  church 
is  afforded  by  the  Christian  Science  Church,  wherein  is  found 
the  largest  degree  of  freedom  from  the  trammels  which  organ- 
ized Christianity  has  accumulated  during  the  past  seventeen 
centuries.  In  general  structure  the  Christian  Science  church 
closely  resembles  that  of  the  primitive  Christian  church,  and 
like  the  early  church  ''possesses  one  and  the  same  faith 
throughout  the  whole  world."  The  early  Christian  church  was 
imbued  with  a  living  faith  in  God,  and  Christ  Jesus,  by  whose 
teachings  it  was  bound  together  by  simple  ties  of  fellowship 
and  Christian  accord  and  activity.  It  was  a  society  which 
linked  together  its  members  by  the  mystic  tie  of  spiritual  com- 
munion ;  a  church  in  which  Christ  was  the  divine  authority 
and  over  which  he  reigned.  Like  it  Christian  Science  exhibits 
a  religious  faith,  which  binds  its  followers  all  over  the  world 
in  true  Christian  fellowship,  a  faith  that  is  instinct  with  vitality 
and  is  the  inspiration  of  its  religious  life  and  activity. 

143 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

The  tenets  of  the  Christian  Science  church  leave  no  room 
for  theological  bickering,  for  a  multitude  of  warring  sects,  or 
for  a  confusing  clash  over  doctrines,  dogmas,  creeds  or  ques- 
tions of  apostolic  succession.  Christian  Science  under  the 
inspiration  of  a  leader  who  has  followed  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  finds  the  truth  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  It  is 
striving  to  do  that  which  the  Master  and  his  apostles  taught. 
Its  system  of  doctrine  is  based  upon  the  inspired  word  of  God 
and  is  limited  to  the  express  statement  of  Holy  Scriptures, 
free  from  later  partisan  and  theoretical  accretions.  It  lays  no 
requirements  upon  its  followers  for  a  verbal  subscription  to 
theological  formulas  and  traditions,  which  are  mere  husks  and 
shells  that,  to  use  the  language  of  a  religious  writer,  "ultimate 
in  a  dyspeptic  and  diseased  Christianity."  It  insists  upon  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth ;  for  therein 
alone  is  peace  and  unity. 

"Christian  Science,"  declares  the  founder,  "honors  God,  as 
no  other  theory  honors  Him,  and  it  does  it  in  the  way  of  His 
appointing,  by  doing  many  wonderful  works  through  the  divine 
name  and  nature.  .  .  .  Christianity  will  never  be  based  on 
a  divine  Principle  and  so  found  to  be  unerring,  until  its  abso- 
lute Science  is  reached.  When  this  is  accomplished,  neither 
pride,  prejudice,  bigotry,  nor  envy,  can  wash  away  its  founda- 
tion, for  it  is  built  upon  the  rock,  Christ."^ 

On  this  basis  Christian  Science  is  reconciling  Jew  and  Chris- 
tian as  the  early  church  united  Jew  and  Gentile,  bond  and  free, 
for  it  is  the  operative  ethical  principle  which  binds  Old  and 
New  Testaments  in  indissoluble  union.  It  furnishes  a  basis 
upon  which  labor  and  capital  may  be  reconciled  and  opens  the 
way  to  the  solution  of  the  economic  and  industrial  difficulties 
with  which  the  success  of  organized  Christianity  in  our  day 
is  so  inextricably  involved.  On  its  platform  of  Christly  love 
and  good  works  it  will  persuade  the  heathen  world  that  Chris- 
tianity is  something  more  than  an  imposition  of  eastern  man- 

^ Science  and  Health,  page  484. 

144 


SIMILARITY  OF  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

ners  and  an  alien  civilization  upon  an  unwilling  Orient,  just 
as  the  early  church  softened  and  moulded  the  life  in  Rome.  It 
is  slowly  but  surely  knitting  together  all  nations  and  races  in  a 
Catholicism  which  will  ultimately  reahze  those  highest  ideals 
of  Christianity  which  with  prophetic  discernment,  Professor 
Briggs  so  eloquently  describes  as  the  one  Catholic  church  which 
will  speedily  draw  all  mankind  into  the  kingdom  of  our  God 
and  Saviour. 

The  primitive  Christian  church  was  a  new  religious  move- 
ment, a  great  and  living  faith,  a  new  expression  of  true 
religious  fraternity  and  Christian  fellowship.  It  fulfilled 
its  Founder's  command  to  preach  the  gospel,  to  heal  the  sick 
and  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth.  In  it  the 
basis  of  union  was  a  changed  life  and  the  preeminence  of 
spiritual  gifts  over  official  rule;  the  equality  of  all  Christians 
except  as  the  well-ordering  of  the  community  required  a 
division  of  functions.  The  real  source  of  this  organization 
was  inward  and  spiritual,  or  to  quote  Professor  E.  C.  Moore, 
"the  original  Christianity  was  an  enthusiasm,  an  inspiration, 
an  idealism  for  which  no  organization  was  needed."  Like 
it  the  Christian  Science  church  is  a  lay  member's  church,  in 
which  equality  of  spiritual  gifts  and  functions  find  its  best 
expression. 

The  simplicity  of  the  religious  services  of  the  early  church 
is  paralleled  by  the  quiet  yet  deep  enthusiasm  of  the  Christian 
Science  body,  the  association  of  believers  held  together  by  a 
spirit  of  Christian  unity  and  a  common  hope.  Both  churches* 
are  distinguished  by  the  spirituality  of  their  teachings  and  by 
the  exercise  of  the  healing  power  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  Jesus. 
This  spiritual  fervor  to-day  lightens  the  burdens  of  men,  re- 
creates social  conditions  and  introduces  that  democracy  of 
spirit  and  the  law  of  loving  fellowship  which  marked  the  early 
Christians. 


145 


ALTAR   FIRES   RELIGHTED 

The  early  church  made  no  distinction  between  Jew  and 
Gentile.  Jesus'  gospel  was  to  be  preached  to  every  creature 
and  all  were  welcome  to  its  fellowship.  It  held,  as  Peter  ex- 
claimed, that  "God  is  no  respecter  of  persons :  but  every  nation 
that  feareth  before  Him  and  worketh  righteousness,  is  ac- 
cepted with  Him."  Christian  Science  measures  up  to  this 
standard :  it  is  a  universal  religion.  It  appeals  to  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  men.     Its  clientele  is  the  human  race. 

In  an  age  when  Protestant  confessions  of  faith  have  been 
generally  cast  aside  as  inadequate,  and  the  movement  for 
revision  of  old,  and  the  establishment  of  new  creeds,  persists  in 
spite  of  every  obstacle  and  every  resistance;  in  an  age  when 
the  current  of  thought  at  work  during  our  century  is  working 
now  more  powerfully  than  ever,  it  must  be  evident  to  all  who 
know,  that  in  a  very  few  years,  as  Professor  Briggs  has  justly 
remarked,  not  a  single  Protestant  or  Catholic  confession  of 
faith  will  retain  binding  authority  in  any  denomination.  It  is 
in  this  age  that  Christian  Science  presents  its  platform  of 
religious  belief,  identical  with  the  verities  of  the  Christian 
religion  as  expressed  in  the  Apostles'  and  the  Nicene  creeds 
as  originally  understood  and  applied. 

The  Christian  Science  tenets  and  the  healing  ministry  fur- 
nish a  basis  of  faith  and  works  upon  which  Jew  and  Gentile, 
Evangelicals,  Catholics,  Churchmen,  Atheists,  Greeks,  Orientals 
and  Rationalists,  not  merely  may  be  but  are  being  bound  to- 
gether in  Christian  fellowship.  Christian  Science  rises  in  a 
pyramid  of  grace  above  the  tombs  of  dead  theories  and  parties 
and  dreary  wastes  of  human  speculation.  Its  fundamental 
propositions  are  that  God  is  infinite  Truth,  Life  and  Love,  and 
that  man  is  a  spiritual  creature  made  in  God's  image  and  like- 
ness. It  is  based  on  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Ninety-first  Psalm.  Its 
teachings  admit  no  reality  to  evil,  sin  or  death,  as  a  part  of  the 
spiritual  universe,  in  which  God  is  all  in  all  and  man  is  His 

146 


SIMILARITY  OF  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

image  and  likeness.  It  overturns  "the  whole  dark  pile  of 
human  mockeries"  raised  by  a  false  scholastic  theology  whose 
teachings  have  ever  been  a  dispensation  of  despair  which  for 
centuries  has  rested  like  a  pall  upon  the  race. 

Christ  Jesus  demonstrated  the  powerlessness  of  sin,  sick- 
ness and  death.  His  mission  was  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil  and  to  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light.  "Christianity 
as  Jesus  taught  it  was  not  a  creed,  nor  a  system  of  ceremonies, 
nor  a  special  gift  from  a  ritualistic  Jehovah;  but  it  was  the 
demonstration  of  divine  Love  casting  out  error  and  healing  the 
sick,  not  merely  in  the  name  of  Christ,  or  Truth,  but  in  demon- 
stration of  Truth  as  must  be  the  case  in  the  cycles  of  Divine 
light.^ 

^Science  and  Health,  page  135. 


W 


VI. 
SPREAD  OF  THE  MOVEMENT. 

THE  first  Christian  Science  church  building  was  dedicated 
at  Oconto,  Wisconsin,  in  1887.  Twelve  years  later  there 
were  twenty  incorporated  churches  and  ninety  societies.  The 
Christian  Science  Journal  of  October,  1910,  publishes  the 
addresses  of  1,236  churches  and  societies,  a  gain  of  1,126 
churches  and  societies,  or  at  the  average  rate  of  102  per  annum 
for  the  past  eleven  years,  within  a  fraction  of  two  for  every 
week  in  this  entire  period. 

No  statistics  are  available  from  which  to  arrive  at  the 
value  of  the  Christian  Science  church  property.  The  extension 
to  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston  was  completed  at  a  cost  of 
$2,ocK),ooo.  The  First  Church  in  New  York  City  cost  $1,250,- 
000,  the  Second  Church  $1,000,000.  Chicago  has  a  number 
of  costly  churches.  The  aggregate  amount  of  investment  in 
Christian  Science  places  of  worship,  it  is  safe  to  say,  would 
aggregate  from  $25,000,000  to  $28,000,000.  The  remarkable 
growth  which  this  indicates  has  been  attained  without  recourse 
to  sensationalism  or  proselyting  or  the  maintenance  of  an  ex- 
pensive preaching  force.  The  Christian  Science  church  does 
not  indulge  in  fairs,  and  supports  no  expensive  choirs.  It 
makes  no  attempts  to  fill  the  role  of  purveyors  to  the  public,  or 
to  furnish  musical  entertainments  and  prayer  services  in  com- 
petition with  the  theatre,  lecture-room,  or  concert  hall.  The 
avenues  of  accession  adopted  are  normal  ones.  They  do  not 
approach  what  may  be  termed  revivalistic  or  sensational 
methods,  but  are  self -sustained  and  representative  of  a  religion 
of  works. 

148 


SPREAD  OF  THE  MOVEMENT 

No  church  buildings  are  allowed  to  be  dedicated  unless 
wholly  free  from  debt.  The  wisdom  of  this  rule  will  be  amply 
vindicated  when  one  realizes  the  struggles  of  burdened  ortho- 
dox Christian  congregations  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  debt 
which  hangs  over  the  church,  and  the  rejoicing  when  after 
many  years  the  point  is  reached  when  the  mortgage  is  paid  and 
a  bonfire  started  with  the  cancelled  papers  amid  loud  acclaim. 

The  movement  has  not  been  confined  to  any  particular 
State  or  section  of  this  country.  Christian  Science  churches 
and  societies  are  to  be  found  in  every  state  and  territory  in  the 
Union.  Elsewhere  on  this  continent,  as  well  as  abroad,  prog- 
ress has  been  widespread,  as  the  following  list  will  show. 
Christian  Science  has  gained  a  foothold  in 


Quebec 

Ontario 

New  Brunswick 

Saskatchewan 

Nova  Scotia 

Alberta 

British  Columbia 

Manitoba 

Bahama  Islands 

Panama  Canal  Zone 

Argentine  Republic 

Italy 

Philippine  Islands 

Sandwich  Islands 

Norway 

Argentina,  South  America 


Mexico 

England 

Scotland 

Wales 

Ireland 

Guernsey  Channel  Islands 

France 

Germany 

Holland 

Norway 

Switzerland 

China 

Australia 

New  South  Wales 

Transvaal 


In  all  these  countries  Christian  Science  has  either  an  incor- 
porated church  or  a  society  in  process  of  being  formed  into  a 
church. 


149 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Speaking  of  the  growth  of  the  movement  in  England,  Fred- 
erick Dixon,  writing  to  one  of  the  English  periodicals,  says: 

"There  is  one  fact  with  respect  to  the  Christian  Science 
movement  which  no  reasonable  person  has  ever  been  known  to 
question.  It  is  that  it  is  always  gathering  force  with  the  most 
amazing  persistency,  and  yet  without  the  aid  of  any  of  those 
proselytizing  methods  which  for  centuries  have  been  regarded 
as  inseparable  from  a  successful  religious  propaganda.  Four- 
teen years  ago  the  entire  'outward  visible  sign'  of  the  movement 
in  the  United  Kingdom  could  have  been  discovered  in  a  tiny 
meeting  of  some  half  score  of  persons  in  a  little  west-end  Lon- 
don flat.  To-day  that  meeting  has  not  only  burst  its  original 
confines,  it  has  gathered  such  momentum  that  the  teaching 
which  inspired  it  has  permeated  the  religious  and  social  life 
of  the  whole  kingdom,  and  is  flowing  with  the  placid  force  of 
some  great  river  through  the  whole  empire." 

There  are  no  available  statistics  that  will  indicate  the  exact 
membership  of  the  1,236  churches  and  societies.  This  is  in 
conformity  with  the  provisions  of  a  By-Law  of  the  Mother 
Church  which  reads  as  follows:  "Christian  Science  shall  not 
report  for  publication  the  number  of  the  members  of  the 
Mother  Church,  nor  that  of  the  branch  churches.  According 
to  the  Scripture  they  shall  turn  away  from  personality  and 
numbering  the  people."  Therefore  the  Christian  Science 
authorities  do  not  publish  statistics  of  membership.  The  fig- 
ures given  by  Dr.  Carroll,  a  church  statistician,  are  necessarily 
little  else  than  mere  guesswork.  Assuming  an  average  of  two 
hundred  members  for  each  of  the  churches  and  societies  the 
total  membership  would  aggregate  about  250,000.  Recent  esti- 
mates place  the  figure  at  320,000. 

There  is  necessarily  a  degree  of  uncertainty  as  to  how  far 
the  Christian  Science  movement  has  penetrated  society,  since 
there  are  large  numbers  of  people  who,  while  interested  in  the 
movement  and  attending  service,  are  unwilling  to  announce 
their  allegiance  to  the  cause  or  to  appear  openly  identified  with 
Christian  Science.  But  taking  the  aggregate  estimated  mem- 
ISO 


SPREAD  OF  THE  MOVEMENT 

bership  and  following  at  a  ratio  similar  to  that  adopted  by  the 
early  Methodist  church,  this  would  give  Christian  Science  a 
present  following  of  about  1,750,000  to  2,000,000.  According 
to  a  memorial  presented  at  Conference,  the  early  Methodist 
church  claimed  a  following  of  1,000,000,  on  an  official  mem- 
bership of  140,000.  The  celebrated  ahenist,  Alexander  Allen 
Hamilton,  who  spent  some  time  at  Pleasant  View  not  long 
ago,  placed  the  Christian  Science  following  at  800,000;  some 
have  estimated  it  at  1,500,000;  others  at  still  higher  figures. 
Taking  into  account  the  healing  work  of  Christian  Science 
practitioners,  as  evidenced  by  the  enormous  number  of  cures 
which  these  practitioners  have  effected,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  Christian  Science  has  in  process  of  assimilation  a  pro- 
digious following,  independent  of  the  following  and  connec- 
tions which  directly  arise  from  the  present  Christian  Science 
membership.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  this  outside  follow- 
ing, except  in  a  most  general  way.  The  cures  accomplished 
are  the  most  effective  and  powerful  propaganda  of  Christian 
Science;  they  number,  in  the  aggregate,  hundreds  of  thous- 
ands and  thus  serve  continually  to  extend  the  sphere  of  influ- 
ences of  the  movement.  The  outside  following  may  be 
variously  estimated  at  400,000  to  500,000  people.  It  may, 
therefore,  be  safe  to  say  that  at  present  Christian  Science  has 
a  membership  and  a  following  of  about  2,000,000  to  2,500,000. 


151 


Part  3 


"The  world  is  weary  of  new  tracts  of  thought 

that  lead  to  naught. 
Sick  of  quack  remedies  prescribed  in  vain 

For  mortal  pain; 
Yet  still,  above  them  all,  one  Figure  stands, 

With  outstretched  hands." 


154 


I. 

MATERIALISM:    THE  BANE. 
I. 

HEGEL,  the  German  philosopher,  held  that  all  true  pro- 
gress, or,  in  other  words,  "The  Consummation  of  the 
Infinite  End,"  consists  in  the  removal  of  the  illusions  which 
the  human  mind  has  created.  Another  great  German  philoso- 
pher, Immanuel  Kant,  declared  that  the  sole  use  of  philosophy 
is  not  so  much  the  discovery  of  truth,  as  the  prevention  of 
error,  and  says,  "I  had  to  destroy  [sham]  knowledge  to  make 
room  for  rational  faith."  He  distinguishes  between  human 
understanding  and  divine  understanding;  between  the  divine 
or  only  real  mind,  and  the  false  human  or  mortal  mind;  be- 
tween human  speculation  and  divine  revelation.  In  so  doing 
he  has  rendered  the  greatest  possible  service  to  religion. 

Gautama,  the  Buddha,  taught  that  ignorance  is  the  cause 
of  all  the  evil  in  the  world.  It  is  the  fruitful  soil  from  which 
springs  the  fear-thought  which  has  fettered  human  capacity 
and  held  mankind  in  bondage  for  ages.  By  fear  I  do  not 
mean  that  sort  of  fear  which  is  largely  a  physical  trouble  rather 
than  a  feeling.  The  bravest  of  men  have  known  what  this 
kind  of  fear  means.  '*A  coward  is  he,"  said  Marshall  Ney, 
''who  boasts  that  he  was  never  afraid."  The  story  is  told  of 
a  young  soldier  who,  after  a  battle  was  questioned  by  tlfe 
Colonel  and  confessed  that  he  had  been  much  alarmed,  "but," 
he  added,  "I  had  my  orders."  The  Colonel  replied:  "You 
were  frightened  but  you  did  your  duty  nevertheless.  You  are 
a  brave  man." 

Fear  on  its  physical  side  is  an  apprehension  of  personal 
danger.     It  always  implies  the  consciousness  of  danger  and 

155 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  refusal  or  moral  impossibility  to  face  that  danger.  But 
fear  which  has  its  roots  in  sheer  ignorance  is  the  most  deadly 
and  widespread  form  of  fear,  far  exceeding  the  physical  fear 
or  apprehension  of  recognized  dangers  which  can  be  partially, 
if  not  wholly,  overcome  by  force  of  will,  the  forgetfulness  of 
self,  or  the  sense  of  duty.  Fear  which  is  born  of  igorance  is 
Homer's  "doleful  prophet  of  ill."  It  has  found  honor  in 
every  country  and  immortality  in  every  land.  The  suggestions 
and  forebodings  of  this  calamity-prophet  acquire  a  thousand- 
fold greater  power  because  of  the  secret  fears  which  material- 
ism has  planted  in  the  human  heart.  It  is  this  sort  of  fear 
which  makes  us  pessimists  instead  of  optimists ;  which  creates 
a  brood  of  morbid  apprehensions  that  not  only  fill  our  sleeping 
but  our  waking  hours  with  visions  of  dire  impending  ills  and 
robs  us  of  both  physical  and  mental  strength. 

Fear  takes  elasticity  out  of  the  step  and  courage  out  of  the 
heart ;  it  wrinkles  the  brow,  saddens  the  countenance,  and  robs 
the  cheek  of  its  bloom.  It  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  worry, 
anxiety  and  timidity  which  comes  into  our  life.  It  creates  the 
thousand  and  one  subtle  apprehensions,  anxieties  and  morbid 
forebodings  which  blight  the  soul  of  man.  It  induces  the 
attitude  of  mind  which  keeps  one  on  the  lookout  for  evil 
instead  of  good  and  leaves  man  subject  to  the  assaults  of 
doubt,  misunderstanding  and  discouragement.  "Fear,"  says 
Horace  Fletcher,  "is  an  acid  which  is  pumped  into  one's  atmos- 
phere. It  causes  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  asphyxiation  and 
sometimes  death ;  death  to  energy  and  all  growth." 

Fear  plants  the  thought  of  old  age  in  the  human  breast 
before  the  time  and  thus  enfeebles  the  frame,  weakens  the 
voice,  palsies  the  limbs  and  robs  life  of  that  serenity  and 
comfort  which  should  be  the  accompaniments  of  a  beautiful 
old  age,  retaining  to  the  last  the  brightness  and  sprightliness  of 
its  earlier  years.  It  puts  its  withering  touch  on  hope,  aspira- 
tion, anticipation  and  the  higher  ideals  of  life.    It  points  down- 

156 


MATERIALISM:     THE    BANE 

ward  and  not  upward ;  it  plants  an  open  grave  in  the  pathway 
of  every  human  being.  To  the  despairing  it  offers  the  pessi- 
mist's outlook  upon  life.  To  every  burdened  soul  it  brings 
naught  of  cheer  and  help,  only  the  subtle  and  dismal  sug- 
gestion, "Is  life  worth  living?"  and  so  paralyzes  the  heart,  from 
which  courage  and  hope  should  never  depart. 

**Of  all  negative  conditions  the  race  is  subject  to,  fear  is 
the  greatest.  We  are  born  cowards.  Our  mothers  feared  for 
us  before  we  were  born.  We  came  into  earth-life  with  a  wail 
of  fear.  All  who  had  anything  to  do  with  us  feared  something 
evil  would  happen  to  us.  They  were  afraid  we  would  catch 
cold,  or  the  measles,  or  the  whooping  cough,  or  diphtheria,  or 
die  of  summer  complaint.  Somebody  feared  all  the  time  that 
we  would  get  scalded  or  frozen,  or  fall  out  of  bed,  or  down- 
stairs, or  into  the  well. 

''When  we  were  old  enough  to  be  afraid  we  feared  our 
parents,  our  teachers,  the  minister,  the  dark,  the  devil,  and 
even  feared  God,  whom  St.  John  says  is  love.  Later,  we  were 
afraid  of  failure  in  business,  of  fire,  afraid  the  election  would 
start  someone  tinkering  with  the  tariff  or  our  blessed  money 
system.  We  were  afraid  on  land  or  sea,  or  of  fire  or  water, 
cold  and  heat,  wind  and  hail,  lightning  and  cyclone,  earthquake 
and  tidal  wave,  and  yet  we  wonder  why  there  are  so  many 
sick  people.  But  the  silliest  of  all  fears  is  the  fear  of  mi- 
crobes."* 

II. 

The  body  is  a  phenomenon  of  thought  and  it  faithfully 
reflects  our  habitual  attitude  of  mind  or  our  mental  condition. 
Free  the  mind  from  harassing  fears,  give  free  rein  to  hope  and 
aspiration  and  the  body  would  come  into  harmony  with  this 
state  of  being,  instead  of  suffering  those  abnormal  and'  diseased 
conditions  which  fear  induces.  That  we  shall  never  get  physi- 
cal freedom  until  we  get  mental  freedom  is  fast  becoming  a 

*Dr.  George  W.  Carey,  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  Herald. 

157 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

truism.  A  hopeless  man  is  never  on  the  high  road  to  pros- 
perity. All  mankind  is  engaged  in  a  struggle  to  prolong  life,  to 
achieve  success,  and  the  fighter  who  is  controlled  by  fear  is 
whipped  at  the  outset  before  a  blow  is  struck  or  a  gun  fired. 

Fear,  in  the  final  analysis,  is  a  purely  mental  process.  It  is 
something  which  has  no  more  absolute  reality  than  has  the 
darkness  which  flees  before  the  light.  It  is  but  a  bogey  of  the 
imagination;  without  real  entity  or  substance  or  actual  power 
over  our  lives ;  it  is  not  a  normal  but  an  abnormal  or  negative 
condition  of  the  human  mind.  Whence,  then,  originates  this 
fear-thought  which  darkens  the  skies  of  human  experience  and 
distresses  and  torments  the  human  race?  Is  it  not  rooted  in  a 
gross  and  frigid  materialism  and  a  no  less  frigid  theology,  both 
equally  blind  to  the  real  nature  of  man,  the  real  significance  of 
life,  the  real  import  of  the  things  which  make  for  man's  best 
welfare  and  happiness? 

The  world  of  the  materialist  is  ever  a  world  of  error,  of 
ignorance  of  the  real  truth  about  man  and  man's  destiny.  It 
cannot  in  the  very  nature  of  things  ever  become  a  world  of 
happiness  for  the  human  race.  Eliminate  fear,  with  all  its 
hideous  and  fateful  forms  and  manifestations,  from  human 
consciousness  and  we  may  expect  to  see  the  millennium  appear, 
but  it  will  never  cast  its  beams  athwart  the  sky  of  human  exist- 
ence as  long  as  the  teachings  of  a  materialistic  science  holds 
sway  over  the  human  mind.  The  philosophy  of  materialism  is 
the  philosophy  of  despair;  the  philosophy  of  the  pessimist, 
founded  upon  the  evidence  of  the  material  senses,  is  the  phi- 
losophy of  the  serpent  of  material  sense  that  has  cursed  the 
race  from  time  immemorial. 

The  materialist,  the  atheist,  the  agnostic,  the  sceptic,  the 
rationalist,  are  a  precious  quintette  of  doubters,  disbelievers 
and  pessimists.  They  are  substantially  agreed  in  their  doubts 
concerning  almost  everything  under  the  sun,  whether  it  be  of 
things  in  heaven  above  or  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  the  waters 

158 


MATERIALISM:     THE    BANE 

under  the  earth.  Their  striking  characteristic  is  a  rampant 
scepticism  which  has  lost  itself  in  an  admission  that  it  knows 
nothing,  not  even  its  own  ignorance.  There  is  no  soul  in  the 
world  they  declare;  no  spiritual  life,  no  spiritual  universe  in 
which  man  may  exercise  his  spiritual  faculties.  There  is  no 
God,  and  consequently  no  faith  in  a  Supreme  Being,  no  ade- 
quate basis  for  hope  or  aspiration.  They  contend  that  man 
springs  from  a  tiny  grain  of  protoplasm  and  lives  in  a  perish- 
able framework  of  mere  physical  organs ;  that  he  has  an  animal 
nature  derived  from  the  tadpole  or  ape-like  ancestors ;  that  he 
lives  in  a  material  environment,  is  dominated  by  animal  in- 
stincts and,  like  the  beasts,  is  doomed  to  perish  after  a  brief 
existence. 

What  is  the  picture  or  model  which  this  materialistic  quin- 
tette is  constantly  holding  up  to  human  gaze  ?  Is  it  not  one  of 
imperfection,  of  angular  outline,  of  deformity  and  hideous 
imagery,  of  an  existence  in  which  decay  and  death  are  ever 
present?  Their  conception  of  the  world  in  which  mankind  is 
placed,  is  it  not  a  world  in  which  sin,  disease  and  misery  are 
accepted  as  normal  concomitants  of  human  life  and  in  which 
doubt,  fear  and  despair  are  regarded  as  inseparable  to  it  ?  And 
does  not  human  experience  faithfully  reflect  this  picture? 

The  materialist  lives  his  daily  life,  knowing  nothing  but 
that  which  his  material  senses  have  brought  within  the  range  of 
his  experience.  Ignorant  of  the  existence  of  God,  or  blindly 
worshipping  some  unknown  power  in  superstition  and  fear, 
he  sees  nothing  but  obstacles  to  life  and  happiness  and  goes  to 
his  grave  believing  sin,  sickness,  sorrow,  pain  and  death  to  be 
the  sum  and  substance  of  man's  existence.  Unfortunately,  the 
great  mass  of  the  world's  inhabitants  still  accept  or  subscribe  to 
this  materialistic  philosophy  of  life,  to  which  Goethe  has  given 
poetic  expression  in  these  words : 

"By  eternal  laws  of  iron  ruled,  must  all  fulfil  the  circle  of 
their  destiny." 

159 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Death  hangs  over  the  world  as  a  grim  spectre,  bHghting  our 
hopes  and  tearing  asunder  our  sweetest  and  tenderest  relations. 

Materialism  is  not  a  book  of  hope;  its  gospel  is  not  a  gospel 
of  good  cheer  but  of  despair.  For  the  immortal  soul  it  substi- 
tutes fleeting  sense  and  gathers  gloom  where  sunshine  really 
fills  the  skies  of  human  life,  knowing  not  that  life  is  more  than 
the  body  and  lives  triumphant  over  every  material  condition; 
knowing  not  that  the  transition  called  death  is  an  awakening 
rather  than  a  sleeping;  that  we  who  are  still  involved  in  this 
mortal  coil  are  in  the  more  dream-like  and  unreal  condition : 

"Peace,  peace !  he  is  not  dend,  he  doth  but  sleep^ — 
He  hath  awakened  from  the  dream  of  life — 

*Tis  we,  who,  lost  in  stormy  visions,  keep 
With  phantoms  an  unprofitable  strife." 

— Shelley's  Adonais. 

Materialism  hangs  the  calendar  on  the  wall  with  its  despair- 
ing motto :  "Time  is  fleeting  and  death  is  certain."  It  knows 
naught  of  the  timelessness  of  time;  naught  of  the  eternal 
NOW  in  human  life,  into  which  the  to-morrow  never  comes;  nor 
does  it  know  that  man  cannot  wander  from  the  present,  which 
is  infinite,  to  a  future,  which  would  be  finite.  The  materialist 
is  submissive  to  death  as  being  in  supposed  accord  with  the  in- 
evitable laws  of  life.  "We  are  agnostics,"  says  Philip  Vivian, 
"and  though  some  may  preserve  an  agnosticism  concerning  the 
continuance  of  consciousness  after  death,  we  are  all  resigned  to 
the  inevitahle." 

In  the  words  of  one  of  the  stanzas  of  Mrs.  Huxley's  poem 
entitled  "Browning's  Funeral,"  the  last  three  lines  of  which 
Professor  Huxley  requested  to  be  inscribed  upon  his  grave- 
stone in  St.  Marylebone  Cemetery,  in  East  Finchley : 

"And  if  there  be  no  meeting  past  the  grave. 

And  if  all  is  darkness,  silence,  yet  'tis  rest; 
Be  not  afraid,  ye  waiting  hearts  that  weep, 
For  God  still  giveth  'His  beloved  sleep,' 
And  if  an  endless  sleep  He  wills,  so  best." 

160 


MATERIALISM:     THE    BANE 
III. 

The  materialistic  notion  that  there  is  no  outside  power,  no 
future  to  be  feared  and  no  terrible  and  grewsome  fate  to  over- 
take us,  may  perhaps  enable  some  when  life  reaches  its  close 
to  "wrap  the  drapery  of  their  couch  about  them  and  lie  down 
to  pleasant  dreams."  But  even  this  poor  comfort  is  denied 
the  human  race.  A  materialistic  theology  follows  closely  upon 
the  trail  of  the  materialistic  scientist.  Its  fear-fiend  stands 
ever  ready  to  conjure  up  pictures  of  a  dread  hereafter;  to  rob 
man  of  even  that  fancied  security  which  a  materialistic  doc- 
trine that  death  actually  does  end  all  may  afford  some  hearts. 
It  arouses  the  direst  apprehensions  concerning  what  is  beyond 
the  veil.  It  tells  us  that  this  life  does  not  end  in  the  grave; 
that  man  is  a  miserable  sinner  under  the  curse  of  a  broken  law ; 
that  life  here  is  but  a  prelude  to  an  unending  life  beyond  this 
vale  of  tears.  It  presents  the  picture  of  a  vengeful  Jehovah 
who  in  wrath  will  blast  our  souls  everlastingly.  It  paints  the 
tortures  of  a  materialistic  hell  of  suffering;  tells  us  there  is  no 
hope  for  the  wicked,  no  peace  here  or  hereafter.  The  whole 
ecclesiastical  doctrine  of  the  future  has  always  been  and  still 
is  materialism  of  the  purest  type.  It  teaches  that  the  material 
body  of  "the  just"  shall  rise  and  dwell  in  a  material  heaven, 
that  all  the  joys  of  the  most  advanced  civilization  await  the 
pious  believer  in  paradise,  while  an  all-loving  Father  reserves 
eternal  fires  for  the  godless — about  nine-tenths  of  the  human 
race. 

"The  punishment  taught  by  the  orthodox  expounders  of 
Scripture  is  merciless  and  everlasting,  administered  extrane- 
ously,  like  a  cruel  master  would  torment  his  helpless  slave  for 
his  own  vindictive  gratification  or  'glory,'  as  they  have  called  it. 
The  doctrine  supposes  that  God  creates  His  children  without 
their  volition  and  then  damns  them  for  His  own  glory  or  grat- 
ification, and  this,  too,  according  to  one  branch  of  the  church, 

161 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

without  giving  them  the  power  to  escape — being  'predestined' 
to  be  lost."^  An  orthodox  writer  has  said  that  "God  keeps 
them  aHve  forever  in  order  to  torture  them  forever."  No 
being  short  of  an  unconscionably  wicked  fiend  could  be  guilty 
of  such  a  purpose,  and  yet  this  is  the  source  from  which  an  old 
hymn  writer  has  drawn  his  poetic  inspiration  which  finds  ex- 
pression in  these  monstrous  verses : 

"Conceived  in  sin,  O  wretched  state, 

Before  we  drew  our  breath, 
The  first  young  pulse  begins  to  beat 

Iniquity  and  death. 

My  thoughts  on  awful  subjects  roll 

Damnation  and  the  dead. 
What  horrors  seize  a  guilty  soul 

Upon  a  dying  bed. 

For  day  and  night  in  their  despite 
Their  torment's  smoke  ascendeth. 

Their  pain  and  grief  have  no  relief. 
Their  anguish  never  endeth. 

Who  live  to  die  in  misery 

And  bear  eternal  woe; 
And  live  they  must  while  God  is  just 

That  He  may  plague  them  so." 

The  realistic  and  grewsome  images  which  theologians 
have  drawn  of  the  abode  of  the  damned  are  still  current  in  the 
sermonizing  of  our  modem  pulpits  as  a  means  of  terrorizing 
the  obdurate  or  impenitent,  beneath  whose  feet  Milton  pic- 
tured an  awful  pit, 

"A  dungeon  horrible,  on  all  sides  round. 

As  one  great  furnace,  flamed;  yet  from  those  flames 

No  light,  but  rather  darkness  visible." 

Hell  is  described  by  the  theologians  as  unspeakable  tor- 
ment, as  a  place  with  either  literal  or  metaphysical  fire,  "where 

*A.  P.  Barton  in  The  Bible  and  Eternal  Punishment. 

162 


MATERIALISM:     THE   BAJSTE 

the  worm  dieth  not,"  a  place  where  lost  souls  dwell,  to  use  the 
language  of  a  recent  writer,  "amid  never-ending,  relentless  and 
entirely  purposeless  tortures  of  the  most  revolting,  sickening 
diabolism,  mad-house  delirium  ever  conjured  up.  All  this  we 
are  told  was  premeditatedly  and  for  His  glory,  conceived  and 
provided  by  a  tender,  loving  Father  for  a  large  majority  of 
His  children." 

The  old  theologians  have  said  that  the  Bible  teaches  this 
monstrous  doctrine ;  and  instances  are  not  wanting  of  the  most 
revolting  descriptions  of  hell  and  its  torments  by  preachers  of 
more  modern  times.  Nor  am  I  exaggerating  the  picture  nor 
exceeding  the  facts.  There  is  a  book  extant  which  happened 
to  fall  into  my  hands  by  chance,  that  describes  the  horrors 
of  the  infernal  regions  in  an  even  more  realistic  fashion.  Hell 
is  pictured  as  a  region  of  darkness  and  torment,  a  place  from 
which  escape  is  barred  by  great  iron  gates,  where  the  damned 
must  stand  in  endless  torture  of  body  and  soul.  And  this  book 
is  a  part  of  the  educational  literature  of  a  prominent  religious 
denomination  and  is  issued  as  a  rehgious  work  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  children. 

IV. 

Years  ago  the  appearance  of  Halley's  comet  produced  the 
most  paralyzing  effect  upon  the  ignorant  and  the  superstitious. 
Peasants  in  European  countries,  history  tells  us,  were  in 
momentary  expectation  that  the  comet  would  come  in  contact 
with  the  earth  and  smash  it  to  pieces.  Messengers  went 
through  the  streets  blowing  their  horns  to  awaken  the  people 
to  the  fact  that  the  world  was  coming  to  an  end.  Multitudes 
were  completely  prostrated;  thousands  were  made  ill  with 
terror,  others  became  violently  insane,  and  scores  committed 
suicide.  Mothers  poisoned  their  children ;  men  confessed  to 
crimes,  persons  dropped  dead  at  first  sight  of  the  comet;  others 
ordered  their  coffins  to  be  ready  for  the  terrible  calamity. 

16a 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Not  only  in  the  old  countries  and  in  the  dark  ages,  but  in  this 
country,  in  recent  years,  the  appearance  of  a  comet  has  filled 
the  minds  of  large  numbers  of  people  with  almost  paralyzing 
fear  and  distress.  In  our  large  cities  great  bodies  of  the  pop- 
ulace paraded  the  streets  with  crucifixes  in  their  hands,  their 
terror-stricken  faces  turned  toward  the  sky.  Others  fell  upon 
their  knees  in  the  streets  to  pray.  Miners  refused  to  continue 
their  usual  vocations;  farm  hands  refused  to  work  in  the 
fields;  night  services  were  held  in  southern  Negro  churches, 
all  in  preparation  for  the  fateful  day  when  the  earth  would  be 
swept  out  of  existence  by  the  comet's  tail ! 

But  science  exploring  the  realms  of  space  finds  sun  and 
stars  and  planets  revolving  in  their  orbits,  held  to  their  ap- 
pointed courses  by  the  law  of  gravitation.  Astronomers  now 
assure  us  that  there  is  absolutely  no  occasion  whatever  for  fear 
because  of  the  appearance  of  a  comet  in  the  sky;  that  comets 
have  been  visiting  the  earth  periodically  and  harmlessly  for  un- 
told ages.  This  filmy,  gaseous  train  of  minute,  intangible  par- 
ticles, illuminated  by  the  sun's  rays  and  millions  of  miles  distant 
from  the  earth,  has  no  real  influence  or  power  whatever  over 
our  lives.  What  then  was  it  that  produced  the  terrifying 
effects  which  I  have  described?  Fear!  And  to  what  is  this 
fear  clearly  traceable?  To  the  comet?  Nay,  to  ignorance, 
illusion,  superstition,  delusion,  false  beliefs  or  false  concepts. 
These  are  all  phases  of  one  and  the  same  thing,  viz. :  error. 
But  no  one  will  seriously  affirm  that  this  fear  was  other  than 
tremendously  real  while  it  lasted ;  nor  deny  the  reality  of  those 
terrifying  effects  which  it  produced. 

What  is  true  of  the  comet,  is  true,  in  a  sense,  of  what  we 
personify  as  evil.  By  a  stretch  of  the  imagination  we  may 
regard  it  as  something  which  sweeps  across  the  horizon  of 
human  life  bringing  wreck  and  ruin  in  its  path.  But  as  far  as 
any  real  essence  is  concerned,  evil  is  more  attenuated  than  the 
comet's  tail.     Tt  has  no  actuality  nor  visibility.     It  has  no  sub- 

164 


MATERIALISM:    THE  BANE 

stance,  entity  nor  potency.  It  has  neither  life  nor  intelHgence. 
Evil  is  not  power ;  it  is  but  a  mockery  of  strength.  God  is  not 
a  creator  of  evil  and  there  is  no  other  creator. 

Evil  is  a  materialistic  and  theological  figment  of  the  brain. 
True  there  are  numberless  ill  effects  in  human  experience  which 
we  erroneously  attribute  to  evil,  personified  as  his  Satanic 
Majesty.  The  real  cause  is  to  be  found  in  our  false  belief  or 
self-conceived  assumption  that  evil  as  as  real  as  good.  Elimi- 
nate the  belief  that  evil  is  not  of  divine  origin  and  is  not  and 
cannot  be  real  in  the  sense  that  only  God's  creation  is  real  and 
the  effects  of  that  belief  will  disappear  from  our  lives. 

Many  a  person  is  filled  with  dire  forebodings  because  of 
belief  in  the  reality  of  evil  and  of  sickness,  sin  and  suffering 
as  the  sure  and  unescapable  adjuncts  of  human  existence.  But 
human  experience  shows  that  it  is  not  the  things  of  to-day,  but 
the  fear  of  what  may  happen  to-morrow  that  clouds  our  lives 
with  gloom;  that  robs  us  of  peace  and  many  an  otherwise 
enjoyable  experience.  "I  have  lived  to  be  eighty  years  of  age," 
said  an  octogenarian,  "and  nearly  all  the  troubles  of  my  life 
never  happened." 

Evil  is  terribly  real  so  long  as  we  are  obsessed  by  the  dark 
fears  with  which  it  oppresses  the  spirit.  By  evil  I  do  not  mean 
the  ills  and  miseries  of  life,  which  are  bad  enough,  heaven 
knows,  but  that  which  human  belief  has  personified  as  the  pro- 
ducing cause  of  these  experiences.  No  doubt  evil  seems  quite 
as  real  to  the  apprehension  of  many  as  were  those  appearances 
of  the  comet  which  terrorized  the  ignorant.  And  so  long  as 
the  belief  in  its  reality  and  malignity  maintains  its  hold  upon 
cur  minds  just  so  long  will  we  be  subject  to  the  mesmeric  influ- 
ence of  this  something  which  is  nothing;  this  something  which 
is  without  spiritual  identity  and  has  no  real  existence  or  power. 
What  we  carry  is  a  burden  of  false  beliefs,  and  it  is  these 
beliefs  which  work  out  their  pernicious  effects  upon  both  mind 
and  body.    When  these  beliefs  become  cumulative,  that  is,  gen- 

165 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

erally  held,  they  constitute  a  law  of  mortal  mind  which  holds 
the  race  in  subjection  to  its  sway.  Nay,  more,  evil  becomes  a 
veritable  Juggernaut,  before  which,  like  the  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious masses  of  the  East,  we  are  prone  to  prostrate  ourselves. 

Astronomical  science  has  driven  out  of  human  conscious- 
ness the  fear  of  the  comet  which  oppressed  the  race  for  cen- 
turies. How  did  it  accomplish  this  result  so  fraught  with  bene- 
fit to  humanity  ?  By  revealing  the  truth  concerning  the  motions 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  orbit  of  these  erratic  visitants 
of  our  skies.  It  has  taught  us  to  witness  the  appearance  of  a 
comet  with  the  utmost  unconcern  and  indifference;  we  even 
wax  facetious  when  its  tail  disappears  in  thin  air  as  the  tail 
of  Halley's  comet  did  the  other  day. 

Who  will  expose  the  falsity  of  these  material,  conflicting 
mortal  opinions  and  beliefs  concerning  the  reality  and  power  of 
evil — which  are  but  a  mockery  of  intelligence — and  thus  relieve 
the  mind  of  the  fears  which  have  shadowed  and  blighted  human 
lives  from  time  immemorial  ?  Who  will  give  us  an  understand- 
ing of  the  truth  which  will  annihilate  these  erroneous  beliefs 
and  their  illusive  conditions,  and  so  open  the  way  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  our  heaven-bestowed  harmony? 

The  teachings  of  materialistic  science  and  a  materialistic 
theology  concerning  man's  origin  and  destiny,  instead  of  re- 
lieving the  human  mind,  have  only  burdened  it  with  innumer- 
able and  unwarranted  fears.  What  is  needed  is  a  true  science 
that  is  not  only  scientific  but  religious  and  which  will  destroy 
the  errors  of  material  sense,  and  rid  the  human  mind  of  its 
false  concepts  concerning  man  and  his  future.  Truth,  the 
truth  which  actually  corrects  our  mistaken  ideas,  will  accom- 
plish the  conquest  of  fear,  it  will  deliver  the  human  race  from 
the  well-nigh  intolerable  burden  of  misery  which  fear  has  im- 
posed upon  it.  Like  the  light  which  dispels  the  darkness, 
even  so  the  real  truth  about  things  will  drive  out  from  the 


166 


MATERIALISM:    THE  BANE 

human  consciousness  the  fear-thought  which  for  so  long  has 
enslaved  mankind. 

Fear  is  the  bane  of  human  life.  Its  antidote  is  to  be  found 
in  a  true,  demonstrable  science  that  will  dissipate  the  ignorance 
which  now  envelopes  the  mind.  Is  Christian  Science  that 
antidote?  Is  it  a  true,  demonstrable  science?  Will  it  effect- 
ually dispel  the  fear-thought  which  now  burdens  the  minds  of 
men  and  plant  hope  where  despair  now  reigns;  will  it  bring 
peace  where  dread  apprehensions  have  for  so  long  enslaved 
our  spirits  ?  Let  us  consider  its  doctrines  and  healing  ministry 
in  the  light  of  these  enquiries. 


167 


II. 

IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  THE  ANTIDOTE? 

Its  Teachings. 

THROUGH  the  Christian  Science  Text-book,  ** Science  and 
Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  in  which  the  teach- 
ings of  Christian  Science  and  the  method  of  demonstration 
are  set  forth,  Mary  Baker  Eddy  makes  answer  concerning 
that  which  philosophers,  scientists  and  theologians  for  cen- 
turies have  labored  to  unfold,  viz:  the  nature  and  attributes 
of  God,  of  man  and  the  universe.  The  Science  which  she  un- 
folds introduces  new  views  of  the  teaching  and  works  of  Jesus 
Christ;  it  offers  a  solution  of  the  baffling  mystery  of  evil,  sin, 
disease  and  death.  Mortal  existence  is  declared  to  be  an 
enigma;  every  day  is  a  mystery  concerning  which  the  testi- 
mony of  the  material  senses  cannot  inform  us  what  is  real  or 
what  is  delusive;  but  the  revelations  of  Christian  Science 
''unlock  the  treasures  of  Truth." 

Concerning  these  subjects  Christian  Science  purports  to 
give  a  fresh  statement  of  truth.  It  involves  a  startling  and 
momentous  change  in  human  belief.  It  discards  all  human 
speculations,  theories,  superstitions  and  irrational  concepts 
concerning  God,  His  being  and  intent,  and  His  relation  to  that 
which  He  created,  and  undertakes  to  declare  a  correct  appre- 
hension and  right  understanding  of  the  true  God  and  God's 
nature,  qualities  and  law.  It  holds  unequivocally  to  the  record 
of  creation,  as  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  narrative  of  the  spiritual  creation,  the  complete  and 
finished  work  of  Deity.  The  record  contained  in  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis,  in  which  man  is  represented  as  having  been 

168 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

formed  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  is  declared  to  be  antagonistic 
to  the  first  account,  and,  therefore,  inconsistent,  false  and  un- 
real. In  its  analysis  of  the  first  record,  which  clearly  indicates 
the  creation  by  an  omnipotent  and  omniscient  God,  of  an  abso- 
lutely perfect  and  everlasting  universe,  the  term  man  is  used 
in  a  generic  sense,  as  meaning  the  full,  complete  and  perfect 
reflection  of  God;  the  divine  image  or  manifestation  which 
includes  every  idea  that  expresses  good,  not  excepting  our 
true,  eternal  selfhood. 

To  the  materialist  Mrs.  Eddy  declares  that  the  physical 
universe,  cognized  by  the  five  corporeal  senses,  "the  world  of 
sense  perception,"  has  no  real  existence  or  entity;  that  matter 
is  non-intelligent  and  cannot  perform  any  function  of  Mind; 
that  Mind  is  self-existent,  and  the  only  state  of  self -existence 
in  the  universe;  that  there  are  no  such  things  as  atomic  sub- 
stances or  an  atomic  life  basis;  in  short,  that  matter  reduced  to 
its  final  nothingness  is  a  mere  name  for  a  false  concept. 

To  the  medical  profession,  entrenched  for  centuries  in  the 
conviction  that  man  is  a  physical  being,  that  disease  lies  hidden 
in  the  organs  and  tissues  of  the  material  body,  and  that  mate- 
rial remedies  are  indispensable  to  its  cure,  Mrs.  Eddy  declares 
that  sin  and  ignorance  are  the  sources  of  physical  ailments; 
that  divine  Principle  or  Truth  "fixed  star-like  in  the  under- 
standing" is  the  one  sufficient  remedy  for  both  sin  and  sickness. 

The  teachings  of  Christian  Science,  concerning  an  evil  per- 
sonality, or  Satan,  are  in  sharp  contrast  to  orthodox  views, 
wherein  we  are  taught  to  regard  the  Devil  as  something  super- 
natural, something  from  which  man  cannot  escape.  This 
horrible  sense  of  the  power  of  evil  has  hung  upon  and  mil- 
dewed the  human  race ;  its  claims  have  deprived  man  of  the 
dominion  he  has  over  evil.  What  is  more  paralyzing  to  en- 
deavor than  to  suppose  there  is  opposed  to  us  a  mysterious 
power,  a  supernatural  agency  with  which  we  cannot  cope; 
which  in  spite  of  our  every  effort  may  drag  us  down  to  in- 

169 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

finite    punishment    for    the    finite    sins    we    have    committed? 

In  Christian  Science  good  is  regarded  as  natural  and  nor- 
mal :  evil  as  illegitimate  and  abnormal.  As  a  student  of  scien- 
tific Christianity,  Mrs.  Eddy  recognized  the  prevalence  of  a 
mesmeric  belief  that  evil  is  an  entity,  that  it  is  potent.  This 
pernicious  belief  she  has  fought  to  dispel  by  teaching  that  the 
belief  in  evil  is  all  the  evil  there  is  and  that  this  belief,  acting 
through  and  upon  mortals  and  things,  procures  all  the  phenom- 
ena of  evil.  The  phenomena  perceived  and  accepted  through 
the  ever-changing  physical  senses  Christian  Science  character- 
izes as  belief  and  not  knowledge.  It  teaches  that  real  knowl- 
edge is  not  based  on  human  reasoning,  but  upon  the  truth, 
which  is  absolute,  unchanging,  and  demonstrable.  Belief  may 
or  may  not  be  true,  whereas  knowledge  in  metaphysics  is 
always  true.  The  teaching  of  Christian  Science  includes  the 
deduction  that  false  belief  is  wholly  responsible  for  the  ills 
and  sufferings  experienced  by  mankind,  and  it  has  entered  the 
arena  of  thought  as  the  champion  of  all  who  would  escape  that 
iniquitous  reign  of  ignorance,  fear  and  superstition  which  the 
supposed  presence  and  power  of  evil  have  in  belief  engendered. 

To  the  theologian,  Mrs.  Eddy  declares  that  God  is  the 
author  of  all  true  being,  the  origin  and  source  of  all  entity  or 
existence;  that  His  works  are  spiritual,  righteous,  unchanging 
and  eternal;  that  He  is  the  conscious,  energizing,  governing 
and  sustaining  power  of  the  universe,  that  His  law  means  the 
completeness,  perfection  and  harmonious  operation  of  all  that 
is.  She  further  affirms  that  God  does  not  create  evil  and  is 
not  responsible  for  it  in  any  form.  Evil  can  never  lodge  in 
His  thought,  else  He  were  not  wholly  good.  Evil  is  declared 
to  have  no  origin  in  Spirit,  no  entity,  no  reality  of  God's  mak- 
ing, and  no  standing  nor  existence  in  God's  realm ;  nor  does 
God  authorize  the  miseries  of  our  earthly  experience,  that 
these  lacking  divine  sanction  have  consequently  no  real  entity 
or  existence. 

170 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

Hell,  according  to  the  teachings  of  Christian  Science,  is  an 
abomination  and  a  fraud,  entitled  only  to  the  execration  of 
mankind.  It  is  declared  to  be  an  individual  state  of  wretched 
consciousness,  utterly  unlike  God,  or  the  conceded  essentials 
of  God's  being,  an  illegitimate  monstrosity,  which  has  no 
verity,  no  existence.  The  various  schemes  of  salvation  evolved 
in  the  solitude  of  the  study  and  expressed  in  the  teaching  of 
scholastic  theology  Mrs.  Eddy  declares  are  founded  upon 
the  letter  and  not  the  spirit  of  the  Scriptures  and  "dishonor 
every  reasonable  concept  of  the  Deity." 

To  the  natural  scientist  floundering  in  the  meshes  of  mate- 
rialism and  agnosticism,  and  endeavoring  to  explain  the  facts 
of  the  universe  upon  the  theory  or  assumption  that  matter  is 
the  fundamental  constituent,  Mrs.  Eddy  lays  down  the  claim 
of  Christian  idealism,  declaring  that  the  right  basis  for  all  true 
science  is  Spirit,  not  matter;  that  Science  is  the  law  of  Mind, 
not  matter;  that  this  law  has  no  relation  to  or  recognition  of 
matter,  and  that  this  Science  overturns  the  testimony  of  the 
senses  and  reveals  the  existence  of  God  and  God's  idea. 

Her  teaching  challenges  the  conclusions  of  materialist, 
philosopher  and  scientist  alike,  with  its  affirmation  that  all 
causation  is  through  Mind;  that  every  effect  is  a  mental  phe- 
nomenon; that  neither  life,  truth,  intelligence  nor  substance 
inhere  in  matter;  that  all  that  has  real  being  is  Infinite  Mind 
and  its  infinite  manifestation. 

11. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  Christian  Science  concept 
of  God  is  admirably  set  forth  in  the  Westminster  Confession 
of  Faith  which  has  been  substantially  adopted  by  all  evangel- 
ical Christian  churches.  As  the  Christian  Scientists  worship 
the  God  of  the  orthodox  church,  there  is  therefore  no  ground 
for  criticism  as  to  the  Christian  Scientist's  theological  basis. 
The  Westminster  definition  of  God  is  as  follows: 

171 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

"There  is  one  living  and  true  God,  who  is  infinite  in  being 
and  perfection,  a  most  pure  spirit,  invisible,  without  body,  parts 
or  passions,  immutable,  immense,  eternal,  incomprehensible, 
almighty,  most  wise,  most  loving,  gracious,  long-suffering, 
abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  forgiving  iniquity,  trans- 
gression and  sin." 

Christian  Science  claims  to  be  progressive  and  to  mark  an 
advance  in  religion,  because  it  throws  the  strong  light  of 
science  upon  the  nature  and  attributes  of  Deity,  upon  the 
teaching  and  work  of  the  Christ,  and  because  it  makes  clear 
and  emphasizes  the  essential  imperishable  import  of  the  Bible's 
spiritual  message. 

In  their  profession  of  faith,  the  tenets  of  the  Christian 
Science  church  include  the  fundamen]tal  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  church,  and  all  the  essentials  incorporated  in  a  pure 
Christianity.  The  striking  resemblance  between  these  tenets 
and  those  of  the  Apostles'  creed  and  the  Nicene  creed,  which 
is  declared  to  be  the  "suflficient  statement  of  the  Christian 
faith,"  will  attest  the  orthodoxy  of  the  following  declarations 
concerning  the  Christian  Science  doctrinal  beliefs : 

1.  As  adherents  of  Truth,  we  take  the  inspired  Word  of 
the  Bible  as  our  sufficient  guide  to  eternal  Life. 

2.  We  acknowledge  and  adore  one  supreme  and  infinite 
God.  We  acknowledge  His  Son,  one  Christ;  the  Holy  Ghost, 
or  divine  Comforter;  and  man  in  God's  image  and  likeness. 

3.  We  acknowledge  God's  forgiveness  of  sin  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  sin  and  the  spiritual  understanding  that  casts  out  evil 
as  unreal.  But  the  belief  in  sin  is  punished  so  long  as  the 
belief  lasts.^ 

III. 

It  should  be  premised  just  here  that  the  Christian  Science 
Text-book  is  not  presented  to  the  world  as  an  endeavor  to  re- 
write the  Bible,  or  to  revise  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
is  not  a  new  Bible  which  Christian  Science  contemplates,  but 

1  Science  and  Health,  page  497. 

172 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTEf 

one  and  the  same  Bible,  explained  upon  its  spiritual  basis,  the 
aim  being  to  make  clear  the  essential,  imperishable  import  of 
that  Bible's  spiritual  messages.  Christian  Science  does  not 
undertake  to  proclaim  a  new  God,  but  the  one,  only,  true  God ; 
nor  does  it  make  an  attempt  to  set  forth  an  improved  Christ, 
it  affirms  that  there  is  but  one  Christ,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Father,  perfect,  eternal,  indestructible. 

Christian  Science  is  declared  to  be  a  definite,  systematic 
and  demonstrable  statement  of  the  truth  about  the  Christian- 
ity of  Christ;  the  truth  about  God,  man  and  the  universe.  It 
comes  to  a  world  full  of  sin,  suffering,  disease  and  death, 
offering  illumination,  spiritual  stimulus,  freedom  and  joy.  It 
claims  to  be  able  to  effect  the  healing  and  redemption  of 
humanity;  to  replace  long  years  of  invalidism  with  joyful 
health ;  to  bring  surcease  from  pain,  the  healing  of  all  kinds  of 
functional  and  organic  diseases,  and  a  new  and  inspiring  sense 
of  the  nearness  of  Divine  love  and  power ;  to  open  the  Scrip- 
tures and  lead  to  their  daily  study;  to  enable  mankind  to  lead 
a  purer,  nobler  life;  to  love  God  and  men  more  truly;  and  to 
enable  mankind  to  overcome  human  ills,  or  to  bear  them  with 
less  irritation  and  complaint. 

Christian  Science  is  giving  religious  faith  a  new  direction. 
It  is  placing  the  emphasis  not  upon  things  which  are  seen,  but 
upon  things  which  are  not  seen,  real  things,  important  things ; 
it  teaches  us  to  see  in  their  true  proportions  the  visible  and 
the  invisible,  the  temporal  and  the  eternal.  It  is  not  so  much 
concerned  in  escaping  from  a  hell  in  the  future  as  in  banishing 
hell  from  present-day  experience ;  it  is  more  active  in  bringirfg 
in  Christ's  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth  than  in  getting  ready 
here  for  some  future  realm. 

Christian  Science  pronounces  the  visible  universe  and  ma- 
terial man  a  poor  counterfeit  of  the  invisible  universe  and 
spiritual  man.  It  affirms  that  only  by  acknowledging  the 
supremacy  of  Spirit,  which  annuls  the  claim  of  matter,  can 

173 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

mortals  lay  off  mortality  and  find  the  indissoluble  spiritual  link 
which  connects  man  with  his  Creator.  It  insists  that  our 
material  theories  must  yield  to  spiritual  ideas  until  the  finite 
gives  place  to  the  Infinite;  sickness  to  health,  sin  to  holiness 
and  God's  kingdom  comes  in  earth  as  in  heaven. 

Christian  Science  declares  that  to  matter  is  erroneously 
assigned  the  power  and  prerogative  of  spirit,  so  that  man  be- 
comes the  most  absolutely  weak  and  inharmonious  creature  in 
the  universe.  Rising  above  physical  theories,  it  excludes 
matter,  resolves  things  into  thoughts  and  replaces  the  objects 
of  material  sense  with  spiritual  ideas.  It  is  described  as  the 
science  of  life  and  being,  as  a  scientific  system  of  metaphysical 
or  Mind  healing,  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  divine 
Mind  governs  the  body,  not  partially,  but  wholly.  Its  system 
of  treating  disease  is  declared  to  be  a  practical  one  which  can 
be  understood  and  successfully  and  generally  applied  to  the 
healing  of  physical  ailments  of  all  kinds.  It  claims  to  be 
scientific,  i.  e.,  precise  and  undeviating,  because  based  upon 
Principle  and  governed  by  unvarying  rules.  It  declares  that 
exact  results  are  obtained  when  these  rules  are  correctly  ap- 
plied, and  insists  that  sneers  at  the  application  of  the  word 
Science  to  Christianity  cannot  prevent  that  from  being  scien- 
tific which  is  based  on  divine  Principle  demonstrated  according 
to  a  given  rule  and  subjected  to  proof.  It  insists  that  the  verity 
of  its  postulates  can  be  demonstrated  with  scientific  accuracy, 
and  offers  as  incontestible  proof  the  moral  and  spiritual 
changes  wrought  in  the  lives  of  its  followers,  and  the  healing 
works  performed  by  its  practitioners.  It  points  to  these  heal- 
ing works  as  open  and  conclusive  demonstrations  of  the  valid- 
ity of  its  claims,  and  affirms  that  such  cures  are  similar  in 
character  and  modus  to  those  instances  of  spiritual  healing 
performed  by  the  apostles  in  the  early  days  of  Christianity. 


174 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

IV. 

Over  and  against  the  so-called  natural  laws  which  decree 
decrepitude  or  break-down  as  the  result  of  overwork,  trying 
climate,  or  any  other  supposed  cause.  Christian  Science  places 
the  supremacy  of  spiritual  law  and  insists  that  God  is  available 
to  interpose  a  successful  veto  and  with  His  immutable  law  to 
frustrate  the  attempted  destruction  of  man.  It  teaches  that 
even  if  break-down  is  due  to  sin,  to  moral  weakness,  the  law 
of  God  can  be  applied  to  wipe  out  both  the  desire  to  sin  and 
the  fear  of  sinning,  and  to  obliterate  with  the  sin  itself  also 
every  vestige  of  the  consequence  of  sin,  whether  physical  or 
otherwise.  The  so-called  laws  producing  and  governing  sin 
and  sickness  are  declared  to  be  not  of  divine  origin,  else  it 
were  useless  to  try  to  destroy  them  along  with  sin  and  sickness. 

Christian  Science  declares  that  all  evil  is  by  nature  evanes- 
cent and  transitory;  that  the  attempt  to  terrorize  humanity 
with  dark  pictures  and  awful  penalties  has  not  lessened  the 
hold  of  evil,  but  has  given  evil  fictitious  power.  It  affirms  that 
the  day  has  passed  when  suffering  mankind  can  be  won  to  God 
or  driven  into  heaven  by  fear,  and  that  to-day  public  opinion 
has  come  to  recognize  fear  as  the  seed  whence  spring  many 
noxious  weeds.  Sown  in  among  good  grain  these  weeds  spoil 
the  good  crops.  To  attempt  to  rule  by  fear,  or  to  influence 
others  by  fear,  even  for  their  good,  is  to  sow  destructive  seed 
broadcast  in  human  consciousness,  where  it  must  germinate 
and  develop  to  its  own  destruction. 

To  those  who  imagine  themselves  bereft  of  all  hope  of  sal- 
vation here  and  now,  with  nothing  in  prospect  but  deliverance 
through  death  and  the  promise  of  good  things  to  come  here- 
after, Christian  Science  teachings  offer  the  contrast  of  a  wholly 
good  God,  who  does  not  produce  the  incitements,  nor  the  con- 
sequences of  sin ;  who  is  available  now,  who  saves  now  and 
who  needs  not  to  be  placated,  since  His  love  towards  us  tran- 
scends our  ability  to  comprehend  it. 

175 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Christian  Science  teaches  mankind  to  place  all  phenomena 
in  their  proper  perspectives,  to  put  evil  forces  where  they  be- 
long and  to  stop  attempting  to  father  upon  the  divine  Mind, 
the  excesses,  the  furies  and  the  violence  of  the  carnal  and 
fleshly  mind,  which  its  founder  has  aptly  denominated  mortal 
mind. 

V. 

The  fundamental  or  basic  propositions  of  Christian  Science 
are  declared  to  be  as  follows,  viz: 

Fir^t.  That  God  is  Infinite  Spirit,  the  All-in-All ;  that  He 
is  Infinite  mind  and  Infinite  life,  all  powerful  and  omnipotent; 
that  He  is  good.  From  this  proposition  the  conclusions  are 
drawn  and  are  declared  to  be  self  evident,  viz. :  That,  as  God 
is  Spirit  and  All-in-All,  the  material  Universe — that  which  is 
revealed  by  the  testimony  of  the  physical  senses — has  no  real 
existence  or  entity;  that  in  Divine  Science  the  real  universe, 
including  man,  is  spiritual,  eternal  and  harmonious. 

Second.  That  God,  being  omnipresent  Life  and  omnipotent 
Good,  it  necessarily  follows  that  sin,  evil,  disease  and  death, 
being  opposites,  can  have  no  real  existence  or  entity. 

Third.  That  the  admission  of  their  actuality  denies  the  all- 
ness  of  God,  God's  goodness  and  omnipotence.  Evil,  sin, 
disease  and  death  consequently  cannot  have  real  entity.  Being 
the  very  antipodes  of  God,  they  are  necessarily  comprised 
solely  in  human,  material  belief,  and  belong  not  to  the  divine 
Mind,  and  therefore  are  without  a  real  origin  or  existence. 
The  belief  in  evil  is  declared  to  be  all  the  evil  there  is,  and  this 
belief,  acting  through  or  upon  mortals  and  things  procures  all 
the  phenomena  of  evil. 

Evil  is  declared  to  be  a  negative  condition,  wanting  in  all 
the  real  factors  of  a  positive  force.  Being  without  power  of 
persistence  it  becomes  self -destroying  when  it  seeks  to  resist 
progress.  The  theory  of  a  force  that  is  evil  in  purpose  and 
ignorant  in  method,  it  is   further  affirmed,  would  make  life 

176 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

chaotic ;  that  between  law  and  chaos,  design  and  accident,  there 
can  be  no  middle  ground. 

"Truth,"  insists  the  founder  of  Christian  Science,  "will  be 
to  us  *the  resurrection  and  the  life*  only  as  it  destroys  all  error 
and  the  belief  that  Mind,  the  only  immortality  of  man,  can  be 
fettered  by  the  body,  and  Life  be  controlled  by  death."^  God 
is  declared  to  be  the  Principle  of  divine  metaphysics;  that  as 
there  is  but  one  God,  there  can  be  but  one  divine  Principle  of 
all  science,  and  that  there  must  be  fixed  rules  for  the  demon- 
stration of  this  divine  Principle. 

Christian  Science  insists  that  as  God  is  Spirit,  man,  the 
child  of  God,  is  spiritual.  This  does  not  mean  that  man  as  he 
appears  is  not  very  material  to  those  who  believe  that  material- 
ity is  reality;  nor  does  it  mean  that  the  spiritual  man  will  be 
realized  as  the  only  man  at  the  present  time,  and  the  nothing- 
ness of  matter  proved  now  as  Jesus  proved  it.  Disease,  like 
materiality,  does  not  exist  in  reality,  but  the  lie  of  disease,  like 
all  lies,  is  very  real  until  proved  to  be  a  lie ;  then  only  can  one 
know  that  it  is  not  the  truth  and  did  not  emanate  from  truth. 

The  claim  is  made  that  Christian  Science  is  inconsistent, 
because  it  heals  disease  that  does  not  exist.  If  diseases  do 
really  exist  and  are  God  ordained,  Christian  Science  cannot, 
nor  can  any  science,  cure  it ;  but  the  apparent  disease  is  healed, 
and  though  this  is  generally  understood,  in  common  usage  the 
word  "apparent"  is  left  out.  Reality,  to  Christian  Science  is 
that  which  is  eternal,  never  changing.  All  that  is  temporal, 
therefore,  in  this  sense  is  unreal.  It  is  the  misconception  of 
this  distinction  that  causes  much  unthinking  criticism  of  Chris- 
tian Science. 

Certain  important  statements  in  Christian  Science  have  a 
direct  and  immediate  bearing  on  the  subject  of  disease  and 
kindred  forms  of  human  wretchedness.  In  making  these 
affirmations,  Mary  Baker  Eddy  threw  down  the  gauge  of  battle 

^Science  and  Health,  page  292. 

177 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

to  the  three  sciences  most  inveterate  in  dogma  and  intrenched 
for  centuries  in  the  convictions  of  the  human  race.  These 
conclusions  are  admirably  summarized  by  Edward  H.  Kimball 
in  an  article  in  the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine: 

"To  the  medical  scientist  Mrs.  Eddy  declares  that  'God, 
the  sole  Creator  of  all  that  has  actual,  legitimate  existence, 
has  not  created  or  procured  disease  and  does  not  make  use 
of  it  or  cooperate  v^ith  it  for  any  purpose.'  Sickness  is  an 
abnormality,  wholly  illegitimate,  unlawful  and  unnecessary;  it 
is  not  a  natural,  indispensable  or  irresistible  incident  of  man's 
normal  existence;  and  being  at  most  but  a  disorder  of  human 
procurement,  can  be  and  will  be  exterminated." 

In  this  particular,  she  is  absolutely  in  accord  with  the 
prophecy  of  Benjamin  Franklin  (in  1788)  to  the  effect  that  the 
science  of  healing  would  be  discovered  and  practised,  and  when 
practised  would,  by  sure  means,  either  prevent  or  cure  all  man- 
ner of  diseases,  through  the  power  of  Mind. 

"The  demonstration  of  Jesus,"  Mrs.  Eddy  affirms,  "instead 
of  being  works  of  mystery,  were  in  attestation  of  the  divinely 
scientific  verity  that  the  nature,  power  and  law  of  God  are 
adequately  available  to  a  sick  man  and  are  spontaneously  re- 
sponsive to  his  need." 

To  the  scientific  philosopher  and  metaphysician,  Mrs.  Eddy 
declares:  that  "the  chief  mischief  maker  of  the  world  and 
the  primitive  cause  or  essence  of  disease  is  what  Paul  desig- 
nated the  'carnal  mind'  represented  by  the  sum  or  aggregation 
of  human  fear,  ignorance,  superstition,  sin  and  erroneous  and 
perverted  beliefs  and  illusions."  She  insists  that  "the  one 
supreme  potentiality  of  the  universe  is  the  divine  Mind  or 
Spirit,  which  has  correctly  been  termed  Omniscience" ;  further- 
more, "that  this  mind  which  was  also  in  Christ  is  equal  to  and 
is  all  that  will  ever  effect  the  redemption  of  mortals  from  sin 
and  sickness." 

Christian  Science  introduces  a  new  view  of  Jesus'  healing 

178 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

which  is  declared  to  be  wholly  spiritual  in  its  nature,  method 
and  design.  It  teaches  that  the  cure  of  disease  which  Jesus 
accomplished  was  wrought  through  the  divine  Mind,  which 
gives  all  true  volition,  impulse  and  action,  thus  destroying  the 
mental  error  made  manifest  physically  and  establishing  the 
opposite  manifestations  of  truth  upon  the  body  in  harmony 
and  health. 

VI. 

Christian  Science  presents  a.  complete  structure  of  religious 
belief.  The  chief  stones  in  this  structure  are  declared  to  be 
found  in  the  following  postulates,  viz. : 

"That  life  is  God,  good  and  not  evil ;  that  Soul  is  sinless,  not 
to  be  found  in  the  body ;  that  Spirit  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  mate- 
rialized ;  that  Life  is  not  subject  to  death ;  that  the  spiritual  reaf 
man  has  no  birth,  no  material  life,  and  no  death. "^ 

The  twin  pillars  of  the  Christian  Science  structure  are,  first, 
the  conception  of  God  as  All-in-All;  that  God  is  what  the 
Scriptures  declare  Him  to  be,  Life,  Truth  and  Love;  that 
there  is  in  reality  one  Mind  only,  because  there  is  but  one  God. 
And  second,  the  conception  of  man  as  made  in  God's  image 
and  likeness,  even  the  infinite  expression  of  infinite  Mind,  as 
existent  and  eternal  with  that  mind.^ 

All  substance,  intelligence,  wisdom,  being,  immortality, 
cause  and  effect.  Christian  Science  ascribes  to  God.  These  are 
God's  attributes ;  the  eternal  manifestations  of  the  infinite 
divine  Principle,  Love.  "No  wisdom  is  wise  but  His  wisdom. 
No  truth  is  true,  no  love  is  lovely,  no  life  is  immortal  but  what 
God  gives ;  no  good  is  good  but  the  good  He  bestows."^  Divine 
metaphysics  as  propounded  by  Christian  Science  shows  clearly 
that  all  is  Mind  and  that  Mind  is  God,  omnipotent,  omm- 

^  Science  and  Health,  page  288. 
^Science  and  Health,  page  336. 
^Science  and  Health,  page  275.' 

179 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

presence,  omniscient ;  that  is,  all  power,  all  presence,  all  science. 
Hence  all  is  in  reality  the  manifestation  of  Mind. 

Christian  Science  places  God  at  the  foundation  of  its  whole 
structure ;  it  bases  every  argument  upon  Him  and  derives  from 
Him  its  only  strength  and  sustenance.  It  declares  that  God 
constitutes  the  foundation  and  principle  of  all  true  religion. 

God  is  declared  to  be  Incorporal,  Divine,  Supreme,  Infinite, 
Mind,  Spirit,  Soul,  Principle,  Life,  Truth,  Love,  the  Everlast- 
ing, not  bounded  nor  compressed  within  the  narrow  limits 
of  physical  humanity,  nor  understood  aright  through  mortal 
concept.  He  is  represented  as  declaring  concerning  His  own 
nature  and  that  of  man : 

"I  am  Spirit.  Man,  whose  senses  are  spiritual,  is  My  like- 
ness. He  reflects  the  infinite  understanding,  for  I  am  Infinity. 
The  beauty  of  holiness,  the  perfection  of  being,  imperishable 
glory — all  are  Mine,  for  I  am  God.  I  give  immortality  to  man, 
for  I  am  Truth.  I  include  and  impart  all  bliss,  for  I  am  Love. 
I  give  life,  without  beginning  and  without  end,  for  I  am  Life. 
I  am  supreme  and  give  all,  for  I  am  Mind.  I  am  the  substance 
of  all,  because  i  am  that  i  am.''^ 

If  God  is  Spirit,  as  Christian  Science  maintains,  then  the 
real  man  of  His  creation,  made  in  His  image  and  likeness,  and 
therefore  partaking  of  His  nature,  must  be  spiritual,  i.  e.,  must 
express  and  manifest  Spirit.  The  real  man's  life  and  faculties 
must  therefore  be  spiritual.  Furthermore,  as  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God,  the  real  man  must  be  complete,  happy,  whole- 
some and  healthy.  He  cannot  deny  his  parentage  nor  bring 
discredit  upon  his  spiritual  ancestry.  He  must  be  eternal  and 
indestructible  now,  the  ideal  man,  the  son  of  God.  This  con- 
clusion derived  from  the  word  of  God,  is  found  to  be  at 
variance  with  the  testimony  of  material  sense.  It  does  not 
agree  with  the  experience  of  mortal  man  from  the  cradle  to 

*  Science  and  Health,  page  252. 

180 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

the  grave ;  the  experience  of  mortal  man  is  one  of  sin,  sickness 
and  death,  not  of  undimmed  joy  and  eternal  life. 

Here  seems  to  be  a  discrepancy,  and  Christian  Science  pro- 
vides the  necessary  explanation  by  showing  that  mortal,  mate- 
rial man,  who  is  believed  to  be  the  sport  of  circumstances,  the 
prey  of  discord  and  the  victim  of  death,  is  not  the  real  man  of 
God's  creation,  declared  in  the  Bible  to  be  the  image  and  like- 
ness of  God.  Christian  Science  teaches  that  mortal  man  is  a 
false  concept  of  the  true  man,  a  counterfeit  attempting  to  re- 
semble the  truth,  but  detected  nevertheless  because  of  his  un- 
likeness  to  God.  God  is  not  the  author  of  mortal,  material 
man,  nor  of  mortal  man's  failures,  limitations,  losses,  final 
breakdown  and  death  sentence. 

Says  Clarence  B.  Eton,  in  the  "Restoration  of  Primitive 
Christianity."  "An  unreserved  acceptance  of  the  inspired 
word  naturally  implies  a  firm  belief  in  the  divinity  and  the  re- 
demptive mission  of  Christ,  for  Christian  Science  argues  that 
there  is  no  warrant,  much  less  permission,  for  our  taking  from 
or  adding  to  the  purpose  or  plan  of  God.  We  recognize  in 
Christ  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God,  the  evidence  of  the  perfect 
unity,  or  oneness  of  God  and  the  real  man.  We  declare  that 
this  unity  or  oneness  was  attested  by  the  teaching  and  works 
which  characterized  Jesus'  ministry  and  crowned  with  royal 
splendor  the  life  of  Him  who  'spake  as  never  man  spake.* 
Christ  Jesus  as  the  recognized  Saviour  of  men  fulfilled  the  ca- 
pacity of  Mediator  and  Redeemer  in  the  splendid  manner  of 
His  own  life  and  example.  But  of  incalculable  value  to  us  is 
the  great  and  precious  truth,  which  He  by  precept  and  ex*- 
^mple  taught,  namely,  that  God  is  not  the  avowed  enemy  of 
His  own  creation.  Moreover,  we  believe  that  Christ  Jesus 
effected  a  reconciliation  by  giving  men  a  better  and  a  truer  con- 
cept of  their  relation  to  God,  and  not  by  conciliating  the  divine 
anger  through  His  own  ignominious  death." 


181 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

VII. 

Christian  Science  brings  the  thought  of  harmony,  the  denial 
of  disease  and  the  affirmation  that  God  is  good  and  life  is 
beautiful ;  it  insists  that  man  is  not  under  the  law  of  limited 
opportunity,  but  that  he  is  subject  to  the  law  of  boundless  and 
perpetual  opportunity;  that  the  only  legitimate  law  is  the  law 
of  supply  and  that  man  is  entitled  to  and  ought  to  receive 
a  legitimate  and  ample  maintenance. 

Christian  Science  inculcates  a  spirit  of  expectancy,  which 
is  the  open  door  to  welfare ;  it  teaches  that  man  is  entitled  to 
the  fulness  and  ampleness  of  life,  that  for  every  condition  of 
wrong  thinking,  which  waylays  and  obstructs  the  human  race, 
there  is  the  positive  condition  of  dominion,  hope  and  power, 
which  is  an  irresistible  offset  thereto.  It  reveals  the  actuality 
of  .  Spirit,  acquaints  its  adherents  with  God  and  eternal  life ; 
promises  to  every  man  a  betterment  of  his  immediate  exist- 
ence on  earth,  and  performs  according  to  its  promise.  It  does 
not  invite  anyone  to  die  in  order  to  be  saved  or  to  be  happy. 
Its  entire  essence  and  import  is  in  the  way  of  expectation  of 
life,  health,  immortality  and  righteousness. 

Christian  Science  affirms  that  no  legitimate  limitation  rests 
upon  mankind;  none  is  competent  to  repress  one's  own  nor-, 
mal  capacity ;  it  teaches  the  majesty,  sublimity  and  the  possi- 
bilities of  infinite  Mind  and  that  man  should  operate  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  divine  Mind,  for  it  is  the  supreme  influence  of 
this.  Mind  in  man  that  means  health  and  life  and  boundless 
opportunity  and  recompense.  It  excludes  discussion  as  to  one's 
health  because  of  the  consequent  implications  which  such  dis- 
cu.ssions  involve.  Thereby  it  does  an  untold  amount  of  good, 
even  if  it  does  deprive  society  of  one  of  its  stock  subjects  of 
conversation.  Christian  Science  teaches  that  images  of  dis- 
ease should  not  be  allowed  to  take  form  in  thought,  and  by 
the  same  token  would  rule  out  funeral  processions  from  our 

182i 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE f 

streets,  and  the  undertaker's  name  and  address  from  the  front 
of  the  church. 

Christian  Science  replaces  darkness  and  gloom  with  the 
light  of  Hfe;  it  eliminates  worry  and  teaches  men  that  God  is 
really  able  to  run  His  world  and  to  govern  His  own  ideas.  It 
teaches  us  to  rise  above  threatening  conditions,  to  refuse  to 
accept  evil  beforehand,  to  rise  above  the  place  where  evil  seems 
to  rule,  and  by  entering  into  the  peace  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
bring  to  pass  in  our  lives  the  order  and  harmony  of  God's  gov- 
ernment. It  teaches  us  that  discouragement  has  no  place  in 
good  and  that  work  which  God  sustains  can  involve  no  anxiety. 
It  removes  not  only  the  sense  of  limitation  but  the  sense  that 
to-day's  failure  is  final.  In  place  of  a  sense  of  limited  oppor- 
tunity which  hampers  the  spirit,  it  teaches  that  man  reflects  the 
divine  and  perfect  activity,  and  that  there  is  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  life  and  action  which  man  is  created  to  express,  that 
when  his  doings  are  truly  taken  out  of  human  sense  and  based 
in  God,  there  is  no  fatigue  and  no  need  of  recuperation  physi- 
cally or  mentally,  since  mental  powers  and  capacities  do  not 
wear  out  by  constant  use,  but  on  the  contrary  are  strengthened 
through  exercise. 

"Christian  Science  is  dawning  upon  a  material  age.  The 
great  spiritual  facts  of  being,  like  rays  of  light,  shine  in  the 
darkness,  though  the  darkness,  comprehending  them  not,  may 
deny  their  reality.  The  proof  that  the  system  stated  in  this 
book  is  Christianly  scientific  resides  in  the  good  this  system 
accomplishes,  for  it  cures  on  a  divine,  demonstrable  Principle 

which  all  may  understand Christian  Science  separates 

error  from  truth,  and  breathes  through  the  sacred  pages  the 
spiritual  sense  of  life,  substance  and  intelligence.  In  this 
Science,  we  discover  man  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God. 
We  see  that  man  has  never  lost  his  spiritual  estate  and  his 
eternal  harmony."^ 

^Science  and  Health,  pages  546-548. 

183 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Christian  Science  in  its  magnificent  hopefulness  may  seem 
to  offer  that  which  is  "too  good  to  be  true."  But  nothing  is 
too  good  to  be  true.  Things  are  true  because  they  are  good  and 
good  because  they  are  true.  An  absolute  conviction  that  there 
is  an  available  power  stronger  than  "all  those  that  be  against 
us,"  will  lift  the  race  out  of  hopelessness  and  helplessness. 
Christian  Science  is  eliminating  the  word  "impossible,"  for  all 
things  are  possible  to  God,  and  God  is  always  available. 

That  Mary  Baker  Eddy  should  have  ventured  on  such  un- 
familiar ground  and  self -forgetful,  should  have  gone  on  to 
establish  this  mighty  system  of  metaphysical  healing  called 
Christian  Science  against  such  odds — even  the  entire  current 
of  mortality — is,  as  she  has  justly  observed,  "a  matter  of  grave 
wonderment  to  profound  thinkers." 

"In  this  new  departure  of  metaphysics  God  is  regarded 
more  as  absolute,  supreme;  and  Christ  is  clad  with  a  richer 
illumination  as  our  Saviour  from  sickness,  sin  and  death.  God's 
Fatherliness  as  Life,  Truth  and  Love  makes  His  sovereignty 
glorious. 

"By  this  system,  too,  man  has  a  changed  recognition  of  his 
relation  to  God.  He  is  no  longer  obliged  to  sin,  be  sick  and  die 
to  reach  heaven,  but  is  required  and  empowered  to  conquer  sin, 
sickness  and  death ;  thus,  as  image  and  likeness,  to  reflect  Him 
who  destroys  death  and  hell.  By  this  reflection,  man  becomes 
the  partaker  of  that  Mind  whence  sprang  the  universe. 

"In  Christian  Science,  progress  is  demonstration,  not  doc- 
trine. This  Science  is  ameliorative  and  regenerative,  delivering 
mankind  from  all  error  through  the  light  and  love  of  Truth. 
It  gives  to  the  race  loftier  desires  and  new  possibilities.  It 
lays  the  axe  at  the  root  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  to  cut  down 
all  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit;  'and  blessed  is  he  who- 
soever shall  not  be  offended  because  of  me.'  It  touches  mind  to 
more  spiritual  issues,  systematizes  action,  gives  a  keener  sense 
of  Truth  and  a  stronger  desire  for  it. 

"Hungering  and  thirsting  after  a  better  Hfe,  we  shall  have 
it,  and  become  Christian  Scientist ;  learn  God  aright,  and  know 

184 


IS   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE    THE   ANTIDOTE? 

something  of  the  ideal  man,  the  real  man,  harmonious  and 
eternal.  This  movement  of  thought  must  push  on  the  ages :  it 
must  start  the  wheels  of  reason  aright,  educate  the  affections  to 
higher  resources,  and  leave  Christianity  unbiased  by  the  super- 
stitions of  a  senior  period."^ 

^Miscellaneous  Writings,  pages  234-235. 


185 


ITS  HEALING  MINISTRY. 

THAT  great  movements  do  not  proceed  from  mean  or  in- 
sufficient causes  is  an  accepted  canon  of  history.  Christian 
Science,  without  the  aid  of  any  worldly  influence  and  in  the 
face  of  the  keenest  opposition  on  the  part  of  learning,  wealth, 
wit  and  power,  has  achieved  a  phenomenal  success  which 
clearly  indicates  that  some  potent  influence  or  agency  beyond 
man's  grasp  or  control  must  have  been  concerned  in  it.  The  re- 
markable growth  of  the  movement  and  the  successful  ministry 
to  the  physical  ills  of  mankind,  cannot  be  interpreted  other- 
wise than  as  affording  an  incontestable  proof  of  the  inherent 
truth  of  Christian  Science  principles  and  practice. 

This  movement  cannot  be  dismissed  by  the  assertion  that 
it  is  neither  Christian  nor  scientific;  or  that  until  Christian 
Science  submits  its  cures  to  the  examination  of  men  of  science 
working  with  the  so-called  exact  knowledge  of  the  laboratory, 
the  claim  that  it  cures  disease  cannot  be  proved  or  disproved 
with  the  scientific  accuracy  which  will  satisfy  the  unbeliever. 
Assertions  to  the  effect  that  Mrs.  Eddy  stole  her  ideas  from 
Dr.  Quimby,  while  pretending  to  be  a  "scribe  echoing  the  har- 
monies of  heaven  in  divine  metaphysics" ;  that  she  masqueraded 
as  the  author  of  a  book  which  she  did  not  compose;  that  she 
was  preternaturally  cunning  in  exploiting  a  religious  movement 
for  greed  and  love  of  power;  that  Christian  Scientists  are  a 
lot  of  dupes  and  devotees,  bewitched  by  a  woman  into  believ- 
ing the  rankest  nonsense — these  jibes  and  their  ilk  are  not  sim- 
ply puerile,  they  are  nonsensical  and  valueless  as  affording  any 
rational  explanation  of  the  growth  of  the  Christian   Science 

186 


ITS  HEALING  MINISTRY 

church  and  the  cures  which  the  Christian  Science  practitioners 
have  effected. 

For  ages  humanity  has  pinned  its  faith  to  materia  medica. 
Dependence  upon  drugs  and  the  professional  services  of  a  doc- 
tor in  case  of  illness  is  an  ingrained  habit  of  the  human  race; 
it  has  become  second  nature.  The  acceptance  of  a  new^  and 
radically  different  method  of  healing,  involving  not  only  the 
relinquishment  of  all  material  forms  of  medical  treatment,  but 
a  reliance  upon  spiritual  agencies  concerning  which  a  material- 
istic age  has  a  very  imperfect  comprehension,  must  necessaril} 
take  time,  and  a  good  deal  of  it.  Consequently,  the  patients 
treated  in  Christian  Science  have  for  the  most  part  been  those 
who  have  failed  to  find  relief  from  the  regular  school  of  phy- 
sicians and  who  have  turned  to  Christian  Science  as  a  dernier 
resort. 

When  Jesus  began  His  healing  ministry,  the  first  sermon 
He  preached  in  His  own  town  raised  a  riot  and  nearly  cost 
Him  His  life.  On  the  second  occasion,  it  is  recorded  that  His 
townspeople  were  offended  because  of  the  wisdom  which  He 
displayed  and  the  healing  works  which  He  did,  and  from  that 
time  forward  "He  did  not  many  mighty  works  there  because 
of  their  unbelief."  Jesus'  healing  ministry  was  hindered  by  His 
own  people  through  lack  of  faith.  Is  it  not  a  marvel  how 
Christian  Science  practitioners  have  been  able  to  effect  the  re- 
markable cures  that  have  been  made  in  Christian  Science 
practice,  in  the  face  of  bitter  opposition  and  deep-rooted,  preva- 
lent skepticism  as  to  the  efficacy  of  their  healing  methods?  Is 
it  not  still  more  extraordinary  that  their  percentage  of  cures 
under  such  conditions  should  be  larger  than  popularly  favored 
materia  medica  has  been  able  to  present  ? 

Christian  Science  healing  involves  of  necessity  an  educa- 
tional process.  A  body  of  practitioners  must  be  raised  up 
thoroughly  indoctrinated  in  its  principles  and  practice,  and  it 

187 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

takes  an  even  longer  time  to  convince  the  unbeliever  that  heal- 
ing by  spiritual  means  is  a  practical  and  effective  system  of 
cure. 

In  founding  a  pathological  system  of  Christianity,  the 
founder  of  Christian  Science  states  that  she  has  labored  to 
expound  divine  metaphysics,  not  to  exalt  personality ;  that  she 
has  remained  unseen  but  patiently  at  her  post,  not  seeking  self- 
aggrandizement,  but  praying,  watching,  working  and  waiting 
for  the  redemption  of  humanity.  Her  teachings  on  healing  are 
given  at  length  in  the  chapters  entitled  "Christian  Science 
Teaching"  and  "Christian  Science  Practice"  in  the  Christian 
Science  text-book.  These  chapters,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  connate  chapters  on  "Physiology"  and  "Science,  Theology 
and  Medicine,"  comprise  one-third  of  the  entire  volume.  They 
form  the  body  of  doctrine  and  instruction  under  which  the 
healing  ministry  of  the  Christian  Science  church  is  conducted. 

"Christian  Science,"  Mrs.  Eddy  declares,  "brings  to  the 
body  the  sunlight  of  Truth,  which  invigorates  and  purifies. 
Christian  Science  acts  as  an  alternative,  neutralizing  error  with 
Truth.  It  changes  the  secretions,  expels  humors,  dissolves 
tumors,  relaxes  rigid  muscles,  restores  carious  bones  to  sound- 
ness. The  effect  of  this  Science  is  to  stir  the  human  mind  to 
a  change  of  base,  on  which  it  may  yield  to  the  harmony  of  the 
divine  Mind."^ 

"Working  out  the  rules  of  Science  in  practice,  the  author 
has  restored  health  in  cases  of  both  acute  and  chronic  disease 
in  their  severest  forms."  Secretions  have  been  changed,  the 
structure  has  been  renewed,  shortened  limbs  have  been  elon- 
gated, joints  have  been  made  supple Christian  Science 

heals  organic  disease  as  surely  as  it  heals  what  is  called  func- 
tional, for  it  requires  only  a  fuller  understanding  of  the  divine 
Principle  of  Christian  Science  to  demonstrate  the  higher  rule."^ 

A  system  of  healing  which  professes  to  operate  through 
the  power  of  the  divine  Mind,  demands  by  the  very  necessity 

^Science  and  Health,  page  162. 
*Page  162. 

188 


ITS  HEALING  MINISTRY 

of  the  case,  exalted  purity  and  spirituality  of  character  on  the 
part  of  the  practitioner.  Success  in  reaching  and  removing 
the  physical  ailments  of  mankind  by  spiritual  means  in  the 
midst  of  an  age  of  materialism  and  dependence  upon  drugs  and 
hygiene,  call  for  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  of  the  very  high- 
est type.  For  this  reason,  therefore,  Christian  Science  prac- 
titioners are  required  to  cast  moral  evils  out  of  themselves  in 
order  to  attain  spiritual  freedom  and  thus  to  reach  the  patient 
through  divine  power.  They  are  warned  against  spiritual  bar- 
renness, lack  of  godly  affection  and  faith,  which  mark  the 
inefficiency  of  stereotyped  forms  of  prayer;  they  are  enjoined 
to  encourage  the  sick,  to  comfort  the  broken-hearted  and  to 
assure  both  patient  and  penitent  of  the  unalterable  love  of  God 
who  alone  heals  all  disease  and  cancels  every  sin  when  ap- 
proached in  sincerity.  They  are  taught  to  contradict  com- 
plaints from  the  body,  upon  the  basis  of  knowing  that  these 
neither  originate  in  nor  depend  upon  God,  but  result  from  dis- 
obedience to  God's  law,  and  that  as  the  apprehension  of  the 
perfection  of  God's  universe  appears,  all  maladies  must  dis- 
appear in  the  same  ratio. 


Ill 

Turning  from  its  principles,  let  us  inquire  what  have  been 
the  results  of  Christian  Science  practice  during  the  forty  odd 
years  that  have  elapsed  since  Mary  Baker  Eddy  began  to  teach 
metaphysical  healing.  As  already  noted,  the  Christian  Science 
church  now  has  a  following  variously  estimated  between 
1,500,000  to  2,000,000.  It  has  been  founding  churches  and  so- 
cieties all  over  the  globe  at  the  rate  of  nearly  two  every  week 
for  the  past  decade  or  more.  The  movement  has  carried  with 
it  a  successful  ministry  to  the  physical  ills  of  mankind.  It  has 
a  body  of  nearly  5,000  earnest,  devoted  Christian  Science 
practitioners  engaged  in  healing  works  in  connection  with  these 

189 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

churches  and  societies.     What  the  honestly  sceptical  public 
wants  to  know  and  has  a  right  to  know,  is  this : 

Have  Christian  Science  practitioners  been  able  to  heal  sick 
people  by  the  Christian  Science  method  of  healing? 

Have  they  been  able  to  do  so  to  such  an  extent  as  to  demon- 
strate the  fact  that  there  is  a  scientific  basis  of  healing  such  as 
taught  by  Mrs.  Eddy? 

Has  the  efficacy  and  reliability  of  this  method  of  healing 
been  proved  to  such  an  extent  as  to  warrant  general  acceptance 
of  Christian  Science  as  a  curative  agency  in  the  place  of  drugs 
and  hygiene? 

These  are  questions  of  tremendous  import  to  humanity. 
Every  person  on  the  face  of  the  earth  has  a  deep  interest  in 
the  answers  that  shall  be  given  to  them.  Furthermore,  they 
are  questions  of  fact,  and  can  therefore  be  answered  by  a  study 
of  what  Christian  Science  practitioners  have  accomplished  in 
the  way  of  relieving  the  physical  ills  that  afflict  mankind. 

The  facts  relating  to  this  matter  given  in  the  following 
pages  are  at  best  a  brief  and  very  incomplete  resume.  Such 
available  data  as  the  writer  has  been  able  to  gather  is  very 
meagre  as  to  the  extent  of  the  healing  accomplished  in  the 
past  thirty  years. 

Mrs.  Eddy  inaugurated  the  Christian  Science  metaphysical 
healing  movement  with  one  student  in  1867.  She  continued 
for  many  years  thereafter  teaching  and  demonstrating  the  heal- 
ing works  which  follow  the  application  of  her  system.  Her 
first  copyright  of  Science  and  Health  was  taken  out  in  1870, 
but  the  revision  of  the  first  edition  was  not  completed  nor  the 
book  published  until  1875,  because  Mrs.  Eddy  had  realized  that 
the  science  must  be  demonstrated  by  healing  works  before  a 
volume  on  that  subject  could  be  confidently  issued.  In  con- 
sequence, when  she  published  her  book  she  was  able  to  pre- 
sent a  number  of  personal  testimonials  of  healing  selected  from 
thousands  of  letters,  testifying  to  the  healing  efficacy  of  Chris- 

190 


ITS  HyEALING  MINISTRY 

tian  Science.  These  testimonials  cover  seventy-two  instances 
of  recovery  from  disease  and  include  almost  the  whole  range 
of  physical  ailments.  The  cures  embraced  both  organic  and 
functional  diseases,  among  which  are: 

Chronic  diarrhoea  of  eight  years'  standing,  sciatica,  blood 
poisoning,  rheumatic  gout,  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  hernia, 
bronchitis,  cancer,  catarrh,  heart  trouble,  lameness,  diseased 
lungs,  nervous  prostration,  dyspepsia,  astigmatism,  chronic  gas- 
tritis, dislocated  hip,  spinal  disease,  curvature  of  the  spine,  var- 
icose veined  legs,  anemia,  fibrous  tumor,  nervous  and  bilious 
headaches,  consumption,  neuralgia,  lumbago,  feverish  colds, 
heart  disease,  influenza,  Bright's  disease,  inflammation  of  the 
eyes,  eczema,  epilepsy,  chronic  rheumatism,  partial  paralysis, 
chronic  inflammation  of  the  stomach,  neuralgia,  catarrh  of  the 
throat,  periodical  attacks  of  biliousness,  severe  sick  headaches, 
hip  disease. 

In  Miscellaneous  Writings,  letters  from  many  places  are 
given,  certifying  to  cures  resulting  from  the  reading  and  study 
of  Science  and  Health.  The  editor  of  the  Christian  Science 
Journal  holds  the  original  of  most  of  the  letters  that  authenti- 
cate these  cases  of  healing.  The  following  is  the  range  of 
cures :  Dyspepsia,  constipation,  kidney  trouble,  endo-neu- 
tritis,  bilious  fever,  prolapses  etere,  consumption,  chronic  liver 
complaint,  neuralgia,  catarrh,  piles,  nervous  prostration,  dys- 
entery, serious  eye  trouble,  malignant  cancer,  cancer  of  the 
neuros,  throat  and  stomach  trouble,  chronic  hepatitis,  mor- 
phine habit,  inflammation  of  the  bowels,  astigmatism,  hip  joint 
disease,  bhndness. 

The  practice  of  publishing  instances  of  healing  personally 
testified  to,  with  name  and  address,  begun  with  "Science  and 
Health,"  has  been  continued  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
first  issued  in  April,  1883,  and  in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel, 
which  first  appeared  in  September,  1898.  These  testimonials 
aflFord  a  definite  indication  of  the  variety  of  cures  eflFected  by 

191 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Christian  Science  practitioners.  Up  to  the  present  time  over 
ten  thousand  personal  testimonies  of  healing  have  been  pub- 
lished. The  truthfulness  of  these  instances  of  cure  have  not 
been  successfully  disproved  as  trustworthy  evidence,  bearing  on 
the  subject  of  the  healing  work  accomplished  by  the  Christian 
Science  practitioners.  It  is  well  within  bounds  to  say  that  these 
cures  thus  testified  to  are  less  than  one  per  cent  of  the  cures 
now  being  performed  annually.  To-day,  taking  at  random 
recent  issues  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal  and  the  Christian 
Science  Sentinel,  we  find  twenty-three  testimonials  of  healing 
in  the  Sentinel  and  thirteen  in  the  Journal,  as  follows : 

In  the  Sentinel:  Catarrhal  affections  of  the  stomach,  as 
diagnosed  by  the  physician;  glasses  dispensed  with  after  eight 
years'  use;  cure  of  an  attack  from  a  case  of  poison;  recovery 
from  drunkenness,  cigarette  and  profanity  habit;  chronic 
stomach  and  bowel  trouble ;  lung  trouble  and  organic  disease  of 
the  jaw-bone;  kidney  trouble;  eye  trouble;  stomach  trouble 
and  internal  complications;  sleeplessness,  eye  trouble,  head- 
ache, and  bowel  trouble;  female  trouble  nine  years'  standing, 
and  unconscious  spells  which  specialists  pronounced  incurable. 

In  the  Journal:  Leg  trouble,  32  inches  diseased  veins  re- 
moved, surgeons  and  physicians  declared  that  medicine  could 
not  reach  the  case,  and  that  the  knife  had  done  all  it  could  do, 
short  of  taking  off  the  leg;  healed  in  Christian  Science  and 
physically  free  for  the  first  time  in  forty-four  years. 

Case  of  a  gentleman  eight-six  years  old,  ill  from  serious 
lung  trouble,  had  two  doctors  and  two  trained  nurses,  uncon- 
scious most  of  the  time,  for  two  days  used  oxygen  as  a  stimu- 
lant, recovered  under  Christian  Science  treatment;  asthmatic 
trouble  with  which  he  had  long  suffered  disappeared  with  cure. 

Cure  of  the  use  of  morphine  and  alcoholic  stimulants  to 
which  he  had  been  accustomed  for  twenty-seven  years ;  also  to- 
bacco habit  of  nearly  forty  years.  Patient  addicted  to  the  use 
of  morphine  stimulant. 

Suffering  from  stomach  trouble,  large  lump  on  left  breast; 
her  son  also  a  sufferer  from  serious  throat  trouble  and  mumps. 

Rheumatic  trouble  and  terrible  cramping  in  the  legs;  com- 
plication of  diseases  set  in,  including  dropsical  condition,  and 

192 


ITS  HEALING  MINISTRY 

diseased  condition  of  the  kidneys;  lay  helpless  for  months;  tap- 
ping afforded  no  relief  and  physicians  expressed  no  hope  of 
relief.     Cured  in  Christian  Science. 

Case  of  broken  health;  case  pronounced  helpless.  Change 
of  climate  advised;  asthmatic  trouble  of  twenty  years'  stand- 
ing; heart  trouble  said  to  be  organic,  with  worrying  disposi- 
tion.    Cured  in  Christian  Science. 

Fall  and  injury  to  back  and  spinal  trouble,  and  stomach 
trouble ;  all  sorts  of  remedies  and  treatment  advised ;  followed 
medical  prescriptions  faithfully  for  years,  but  became  more 
emaciated;  was  carried  to  a  Christian  Science  service.  Cured 
in  Christian  Science. 

Case  of  heart  trouble ;  treated  by  many  physicians  without 
results.  Carried  left  arm  in  splints  for  eleven  weeks,  owing  to 
injury  to  the  shoulder  which  made  it  impossible  to  raise  the 
arm  and  which  had  become  crooked.  Doctor  said  would  never 
become  straight. 

Injury  to  the  spine  by  being  thrown  from  a  carriage.  Suf- 
fered for  fifteen  years  with  pain  in  the  head  and  back.  Never 
knew  what  it  was  to  have  a  well  day.  Was  taken  ill  with 
fever  and  reduced  in  weight  to  eighty-seven  pounds  and  under- 
went surgical  treatment  in  the  Maine  General  Hospital.  Cured 
in  Christian  Science. 

Had  liquor,  tobacco  and  profanity  habit;  weak  constitu- 
tion. Cured  in  Christian  Science.  Weak  constitution  made 
strong;  weight  increased  forty  pounds;  freedom  from  worries 
and  perplexities  and  increase  in  income.  Asthma  and  affec- 
tion of  the  lungs. 

Invalid  with  throat  and  lung  trouble.  Various  treatments 
resorted  to  from  both  schools  of  medicine ;  went  hither  and 
thither  sampling  air;  medicine,  change  of  air  and  diet  could 
give  no  permanent  relief.     Cured  in  Christian  Science. 

The  statistics  of  the  work  of  the  Christian  Science  prac- 
titioners is  not  available  for  the  entire  field,  but  the  Christian 
Science  publication  committee  for  the  state  of  New  York  has 
furnished  certain  data  for  an  article  in  a  recent  issue  of  the 
Broadway  Magazine.  According  to  the  figures  given,  13,876 
cases  were  treated  in  New  York  state  between  September, 
1905,  and  September,  1906.    Of  this  number  11,244  were  either 

193 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

completely  cured  or  permanently  benefited,  and  of  these  1,495 
cases  were  taken  over  from  physicians  who  had  given  them  up 
or  despaired  of  affording  relief.  The  number  of  deaths  was 
58.  The  2,632  cases  remaining  were  at  the  time  still  under 
treatment.  These  statements  are  on  file  and  accessible  at  the 
office  of  the  Christian  Science  Committee  on  Publication,  lo- 
cated at  No.  I  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City,  and  can  be 
easily  verified. 

The  common  impression  with  a  majority  of  people  is  that 
Christian  Science  may  possibly  be  of  value  in  cases  of  hysteria 
and  forms  of  functional  nervous  diseases.  The  array  of  tes- 
timony presented  by  these  statistics  as  to  the  variety  of  un- 
questionable cures  effected  is  remarkable,  as  the  following 
partial  tabulation  will  show : 

Rheumatism 17  cases 

Heart    disease    7 

Tuberculosis — throat  and  lung  trouble..  16     " 

Alcoholism  and  drug  habit 6     " 

Stomach  trouble    33     " 

Rupture  5 

Sprain  and  broken  bones 4     " 

Female  disease 26 

Nervous  prostration    22     " 

Eye  diseases  . 23 

Neuralgia 5 

Skin  diseases,  scrofula,  etc 6     " 

Tumors  and  hemorrhoids   10     " 

Appendicitis — peritonitis,  etc. 7     " 

Bright's  disease   5 

Locomotor   Ataxia    4 

Cancer   6 

During  the  period  covered  by  this  record,  the  State  De- 
partment of  Health  reported  129,833  cases  as  having  died 
under  medical  treatment,  making  a  rate  of  17.3  to  the  thou- 
sand of  population.  The  mortality  among  Christian  Science 
patients  is  3.82  to  the  thousand  of  the  number  treated.     It 

194 


ITS  HEALING  MINISTRY 

must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Christian  Science  population, 
as  cited,  was  technically  a  hospital  population.  Every  unit  was 
a  sick  person,  and  in  nearly  every  case  of  death  the  patient  was 
already  despaired  of  when  Christian  Science  treatment  began. 

The  Christian  Science  Journal  of  February,  1906,  gives  the 
name  and  address  of  303  practitioners  for  the  state  of  New 
York.  This  establishes  an  average  of  45.8  cases  for  each  prac- 
titioner for  the  period  under  consideration.  The  Christian 
Science  Journal  of  March,  1909,  gives  the  names  and  addresses 
of  4,008  Christian  Science  practitioners  in  this  country  and 
abroad.  Taking  the  average  of  45.8  cases  for  each  practition- 
er, the  total  number  treated  annually  would  be  188,156.  Of  the 
13,876  cases  treated  in  New  York  state,  11,244  were  completely 
cured  or  permanently  benefited  by  Christian  Science,  giving  an 
average  of  ^y  successful  cases  for  each  practitioner,  or  a  total 
number  of  cures  effected  by  Christian  Science  practitioners  of 
151,996  per  annum. 

In  all  of -the  more  than  one  thousand  organizations  of  this 
denomination,  weekly  experience  meetings  are  held,  where  at 
a  very  low  estimate  from  seven  to  ten  testimonies  are  heard  at 
each  session  of  cases  which  cover  every  known  disease  of  body 
and  mind,  chronic  and  acute,  organic  and  functional.  One  can 
readily  see  what  a  volume  of  evidence  as  to  the  curative  efficacy 
of  Christian  Science  is  thus  all  the  time  accumulating. 

In  an  article  by  John  B.  Willis,  in  the  Arena  of  July,  1907, 
on  the  Truths  of  Christian  Science,  there  occurs  a  passage 
which  connects  itself  closely  with  the  foregoing  resume  of  the 
healing  ministry  of  Christian  Science. 

**To  the  earnest  truth-seeker  the  evidence  is  overwhelming 
that  those  who  through  pain  or  heart  hunger  are  impelled  to 
study  Christian  Science  find  in  it  great  illumination,  spiritual 
stimulus,  freedom  and  joy.  Christian  Science  has  effected  the 
healing  and  redemption  of  thousands  in  every  walk  of  life. 
Every  issue  of  its  publications  includes  pages  of  testimonies 
which  have  been  carefully  verified,  and  the  weight  of  this  evi- 

195 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

dence  is  cumulative  and  convincing.  Men  and  women  are 
everywhere  witnessing  that  it  has  brought  them  surcease  of 
pain,  the  heahng  of  all  kinds  of  functional  and  organic  disease, 
and  a  new,  inspiring  sense  of  the  Divine  nearness,  love  and 
power ;  that  it  has  opened  the  Scriptures  and  led  to  their  daily 
study  as  never  before ;  that  it  has  enabled  them  to  live  a  nobler 
and  purer  life,  to  love  God  and  their  fellowmen  more  truly,  to 
overcome  life's  ills,  and  to  bear  those  not  escaped  with  less 
irritation  and  complaint — in  a  word,  that  it  has  brought  them 
the  fulfilment  of  their  prayers  and  the  prayers  of  Christian 
people  in  all  the  years,  and  the  many  beautiful  temples  dedi- 
cated to  this  new-old  religion  are  simply  thank  offerings  from 
those  who  have  been  thus  benefited." 

On  the  subject  of  the  lost  healing  power  of  Christianity  and 
the  spiritual  mission  of  the  Christian  Science  church,  Mary 
Baker  Eddy  wrote  in  earlier  years  as  follows : 

"The  ancient  Christians  were  healers.  Why  has  this  ele- 
ment of  Christianity  been  lost?  Because  our  systems  of  re- 
ligion are  governed  more  or  less  by  our  systems  of  medicine. 
The  first  idolatry  was  faith  in  matter.  The  schools  have  ren- 
dered faith  in  drugs  the  fashion  rather  than  faith  in  Deity.  By 
trusting  matter  to  destroy  its  own  discord,  health  and  harmony 
have  been  sacrificed.  Such  systems  are  barren  of  the  vitality 
of  spiritual  power,  by  which  material  sense  is  made  the  servant 
of  Science  and  religion  become  Christlike. 

"Material  medicine  substitutes  drugs  for  the  power  of  God 
— even  the  might  of  Mind — to  heal  the  body.  Scholasticism 
clings  to  the  person,  instead  of  the  divine  Principle,  of  the  man 
Jesus ;  and  His  Science,  the  curative  agent  of  God,  is  silenced. 
Why  ?  Because  truth  divests  material  works  of  their  imaginary 
power,  and  clothes  Spirit  with  supremacy.  Science  is  the 
'stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates,'  remembered  not,  even  when 
its  elevating  effects  prove  its  divine  origin  and  efficacy."^ 

Is  it  true  that  Christian  Science  is  still  the  stranger  within 
our  gates?    Rather  is  it  not  finding  welcome  in  thousands  of 
homes  ?    Is  it  not  driving  faith  in  materia  medica  and  the  med- 
icine closet  that  goes  with  it  out  of  multitudes  of  homes?    Is  it 
'Science  and  Health,  page  146. 

196 


ITS  HEALING  MINISTRY 

not  bringing  in  a  condition  of  health  and  serenity  of  mind  and 
countless  blessings  which  were  not  there  before? 

The  healing  power  developed  by  Christian  Science  seems 
inexplicable  to  many  because  they  do  not  understand  that  the 
controlling  factor  in  our  health  processes  is  not  body  but  Spirit. 
They  are  ready  to  acknowledge  the  existence  of  mortal  mind, 
but  adhere  to  the  old  conception  that  this  mind  resides  in  mat- 
ter, that  it  is  the  product  of  the  brain  cells. 

We  are  wiser  now  than  we  were  forty  years  ago.  Modern 
science  no  longer  seeks  to  account  for  man's  existence  on  this 
planet  by  attributing  his  origin  to  dead  azoic  matter  or  to  life- 
less particles  or  molecules  of  carbon,  nitrogen,  hydrogen,  etc., 
combined  in  a  protoplasmic  cell.  The  notion  that  intelligence, 
sensation  and  substance  are  inherent  in  matter  or  the  inert  par- 
ticles which  man  appropriates  for  the  construction  or  mainte- 
nance of  his  physical  organization  and  that  man  is  simply  the 
outcome  of  certain  physico-chemical  properties  of  matter  is 
being  relegated  to  the  scrap-heap  of  exploded  conjectures  or 
hypotheses. 

"All  the  apparent  changes  of  the  body,"  says  Evans,  the 
great  philosopher,  *'all  the  conditions  and  qualities  are  within 

the  mind  and  are  only  modes  of  thinking  and  feeling 

The  body,  with  all  its  varying  states  of  health  and  disease, 
pleasure  and  pain,  strength  and  weakness,  is  only  the  extemal- 
ization,  or  ultimation,  or  projection  outward,  in  appearance  to 
ourselves  of  our  inward  condition." 

The  German  philosopher  Fichte  has  stated  very  clearly  the 

same  view  with  regard  to  the  human  body : 

"I  am  compelled  to  admit,"  says  he,  ''that  this  body,  with 
all  its  organs,  is  nothing  but  a  sensible  manifestation  in  a  de- 
terminate portion  of  space — of  myself — the  inward  thinking 
being  or  spiritual  entity." 

It  is  becoming  far  less  difficult  for  thinking  minds  to  accept 
the  basic  truth  which  Christian  Science  so  insistently  teaches, 

197 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

that  man  is  the  idea  of  Infinite  Mind;  that  the  body  is  an  ex- 
pression of  Mind  and  reflects  harmony  or  discord  according 
to  thought.  Is  not  the  world  many  leagues  on  its  way  toward 
the  solution  of  the  question  propounded  by  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
in  1885? 

"Shall  we  have  a  spiritual  Christianity  and  a  spiritual  heal- 
ing or  a  materialistic  religion  and  a  materia  medica?" 

How  judge  ye,  Members  of  the  Jury? 


198 


III. 

SCIENTIFIC   STATEMENT   OF    BEING. 

THE  order  of  progression  in  science  has  been  marked  by  two 
great  epochs.  The  epoch  of  Copernicus  destroyed  the  il- 
lusions of  material  sense  concerning  the  motions  of  the  solar 
system,  but  Copernicus  could  not  tell  what  it  was  that  held  the 
earth  in  its  orbit.  Kepler,  eighty  years  after,  inferred  that  the 
laws  which  preside  over  the  grand  movements  of  the  solar  sys- 
tem preside  also  over  the  lesser  movements  of  its  constituent 
parts,  and  strongly  protested  against  the  action  of  the  Roman 
church  authorities  in  prohibiting  the  promulgation  of  "the  true 
system  of  the  structure  of  the  universe."  The  laws  of  the 
planetary  revolutions  were  signally  illustrated  by  these  two 
great  scientists,  but  the  promulgation  of  the  formula  of  motion, 
the  theory  of  the  law  of  gravitation,  was  the  epoch  of  Newton 
in  European  science.  Nevertheless,  to  think  or  speak  of  gravi- 
tation as  a  law  of  matter  is  incongruous,  since  every  quality  of 
matter  in  and  of  itself  is  inert,  inanimate,  non-intelligent.  It  is 
neither  self-creative  nor  self -existent.  Wherever  law  is  there 
must  of  necessity  be  an  intelligent,  all-powerful,  self-existent 
Law-Giver  back  of  it. 

The  epoch  of  Newton  was  the  answer  to  Copernicus.  It 
gave  science  the  law  of  gravitation  which  governs  the  move- 
ments of  the  heavenly  bodies.  But  science  could  give  no  ex- 
planation of  what  is  back  of  this  so-called  law  of  gravitation, 
whereby  the  systems  upon  systems  of  the  stellar  universe  are 
held  to  their  appointed  courses,  other  than  to  call  it  "blind 
force"  or  energy,  or  the  operation  of  natural  or  "eternal  laws 
of  iron." 

199 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

We  have  had  the  epoch  of  Copernicus;  we  have  had  the 
epoch  of  Newton.  Great  scientists  were  they,  whose  researches 
have  led  us  to  the  borderland  where  lie  the  ultimate  realities. 
We  have  reached  another  epoch  in  the  progress  of  science  to- 
wards the  goal  of  knowledge  of  the  real  truth  about  things. 
The  greatest  scientist  of  our  times  has  entered  the  borderland 
of  which  Sir  William  Crookes  has  spoken  and  has  grappled 
with  the  "ultimate  realities."  The  epoch  of  these  latter  days  is 
the  epoch  of  Christian  Science,  the  epoch  of  a  science  that 
is  not  only  scientific  but  Christian,  a  science  that  deals  not  with 
visible  phenomena,  but  the  creative  Principle  of  all  that  has 
real  being. 

Cicero  declared  his  belief  in  an  eternal  and  immutable  law 
embracing  all  things  and  all  times.  D'Alembert,  in  his  intro- 
duction to  the  Encyclopedia,  echoes  the  same  idea  in  these 
words :  "The  universe  is  but  a  single  fact ;  it  is  only  one  great 
truth."  The  cause  of  all  phenomena,  the  power  which  is  back 
of  gravitation,  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  the  founder  of  Christian 
Science,  has  traced  to  its  true  source.  She  has  broken  through 
time-honored  materialistic  theories  and  traditions  of  botjh 
science  and  theology  and  dealt  a  fatal  blow  at  the  supposed 
material  foundations  or  material  concepts  of  life  and  intelli- 
gence in  matter.  With  rare  spiritual  and  philosophic  insight 
she  has  postulated  a  statement  of  real  being  which  is  both 
Christian  and  scientific,  and  not  less  revolutionary  and  epoch- 
making  than  the  discoveries  of  Copernicus  or  Kepler  or  New- 
ton; nor  is  it  less  radical  in  its  overturning  of  the  traditional 
illusion  that  matter  has  reality  or  substance  or  the  attributes  of 
life,  intelligence  or  sensation.  "This  scientific  sense  of  being 
estabhshes  harmony ;  it  enters  into  no  compromise  with  finite- 
ness  and  feebleness.  It  undermines  the  foundations  of  mor- 
tality and  of  physical  law,  breaks  their  chains  and  sets  the 
captive  free;  it  opens  the  doors  for  them  that  are  bound."* 

^Miscellaneous  Writings,  page  loi. 

200 


SCIENTIFIC   STATEMENT    OF   BEING 

In  the  face  of  a  rampant  materialism  she  has  had  the  cour- 
age to  challenge  its  doctrines  with  a  scientific  formulation  of 
the  verities — the  ultimate  realities — the  far-reaching  effects  of 
which  have,  as  yet,  been  scarcely  realized  by  materialist  or 
scientist  or  theologian.  This  scientific  statement  of  truth  re- 
verses completely  the  seeming  relation  between  soul  and  body ; 
it  emphasizes  in  a  most  signal  manner  the  great  truth  that  the 
universe  is  but  a  single  fact,  that  it  is  itself  one  divine  verity, 
subject  to  one  eternal  and  immutable  law,  the  law  of  the  divine 
Mind. 

It  is  a  marvel  of  terse,  compact,  scientific  formulation, 
which  goes  direct  to  the  heart  of  things  in  this  old  world  of 
curs,  and,  what  is  more,  it  is  not  materialistic,  but  thoroughly 
Christian.  It  is  a  thesis  which  should  be  nailed  to  the  door- 
posts of  every  orthodox  church  in  Christendom.    Hear  ye : 

"There  is  no  life,  truth,  intelligence  nor  substance  in  mat- 
ter. All  is  infinite  Mind  and  its  infinite  manifestation,  for  God 
is  All-in-All.  Spirit  is  immortal  Truth.  Matter  is  mortal  error. 
Spirit  is  the  real  and  eternal;  matter  is  the  unreal  and  tem- 
poral. Spirit  is  God,  and  man  is  His  image  and  Hkeness ;  hence, 
man  is  spiritual  and  not  material.^ 

This  scientific  statement  of  Being  formulated  by  Mary 
Baker  Eddy  is  the  basis  of  a  true  science  in  that  it  is  demon- 
strable. It  is  a  truth  "that  works" ;  that  is  known  by  the  fruits 
thereof.  It  separates  truth  from  error,  and  bases  it  not  upon 
human  speculation,  but  upon  the  verities  of  being.  I  regard  it 
as  the  most  wonderful,  the  most  authoritative,  scientific  pro- 
nouncement in  the  history  of  the  ages.  It  questions  and  con- 
tradicts the  very  premises  of  materialistic  science  and  wrecks 
its  first  principles.  It  is  more  revolutionary,  more  far-reaching 
in  its  results,  than  the  discoveries  of  both  Copernicus  and 
Newton,  which  have  only  led  up  to  it.  It  is  so  from  the  very 
fact  that  it  touches  those  ultimate  realities  concerning  God  and 

^Science  and  Health,  page  468. 

201 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

man  and  the  universe  which  science  has  been  vainly  groping 
for  centuries  to  find.  It  has  been  reserved  for  a  woman  of 
profound  spiritual  insight,  supreme  virtue  and  intellectual 
acumen  to  point  the  way  to  the  underlying  truth  about  things 
in  a  declaration  that  is  Christianly  scientific  and  from  which  its 
every  teaching,  however  revolutionary,  follows  as  a  logical  de- 
duction from  this  fundamental  principle. 

It  is  now  nearly  forty  years  since  the  founder  of  Christian 
Science  presented  its  postulates  or  system  of  doctrine,  which  it 
claimed  could  be  verified  and  made  practical  to  this  age  in  an 
exact,  positive  and  demonstrable  Christianity.  Its  basic  truth 
is  that  God  is  Spirit  and  God  is  Mind,  that  He  created  all  and 
that  therefore  it  follows  that  the  real  creation  is  spiritual  not 
material.  God's  spiritual  creation  is  declared  to  be  complete 
and  perfect  and  includes  all  created  things.  The  infinite  God, 
which  is  readily  acknowledged  by  the  theologian,  indicates  that 
He  is  all,  and  that  there  is  naught  beside  Him.  God  being 
Spirit,  He  is  the  only  substance,  the  only  entity.  From  this 
premise  Christian  Science  relegates  to  the  rank  of  unreality  all 
that  is  unlike  God  and  all  that  is  unHke  good.  Mind  as  used 
in  Christian  Science  is  a  synonym  of  God  and  does  not  mean 
the  so-called  human  mind. 

"Science  understood,  translates  matter  into  Mind;  rejects 
all  the  theories  of  causation,  restores  the  spiritual  and  original 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures  and  explains  the  teachings  and  the 
life  of  our  Lord.  It  is  the  'new  tongue'  with  'signs  following,' 
spoken  of  by  St.  Mark.  It  gives  God's  infinite  meanings  to 
mankind,  healing  the  sick,  casting  out  evil  and  raising  the 
spiritually  dead.  Christianity  is  Christlike  only  as  it  reiterates 
the  word,  repeats  the  works  and  manifests  the  spirit  of 
Christ."^ 

But  it  is  said  that  this  Scientific  Statement  of  Being  flatly 
contradicts  the  evidence  of  the  senses — the  teachings  of  nat- 

^Miscellaneous  Writings,  page  25. 

202 


SCIENTIFIC   STATEMENT    OF   BEING 

ural  science  and  scholastic  theology.  Quite  true;  but  not 
more  so  than  the  discovery  which  Copernicus  announced  and 
which  flatly  cohtradicts  the  evidence  of  our  own  eyesight.  Do 
you  believe  what  Mary  Baker  Eddy  has  said?  Not  less  so, 
possibly,  than  I  did  when  I  first  began  to  study  the  subject  and 
formulate  the  material  for  this  book. 

Can  we  ever  be  certain  as  to  what  our  five  senses  testify 
to;  do  they,  can  they,  testify  truly?  You  are  sure,  for  in- 
stance, that  there  is  such  a  law  as  the  law  of  gravitation,  but 
you  can  neither  see,  taste,  touch,  nor  feel  it.  It  is  an  ideal- 
istic force  or  so-called  law  of  motion,  a  term  invented  to  ac- 
count for  certain  phenomena  in  nature.  The  real  cause  for 
that  phenomena  may  be  altogether  different  from  what  New- 
ton thought  it  was.  We  see  an  apple  drop  to  the  ground,  but 
our  physical  senses  cannot  tell  us  what  caused  it  to  drop  or 
what  holds  it  fast  to  the  ground  or  lets  go  of  it  when  some  boy 
comes  along  with  vegetarian  instincts  and  converts  it  to  his 
sole  use  and  purposes.  Nor  can  you  tell  just  how  it  is  that  an 
apple  can  subserve  two  such  divergent  functions,  viz. :  satisfy 
a  boy's  thievish  proclivities  and  nourish  his  body  at  one  and 
the  same  time. 

We  are  surrounded  with  forces  acting  upon  us  every  mo- 
ment of  our  lives,  but  they  are  invisible;  withdraw  them  and 
nature  would  collapse.  Our  corporeal  senses  can  give  us  no 
reliable  testimony  about  them,  nor  tell  us  anything  of  their 
real  essence  or  nature.  It  is  no  new  thing  for  the  world  to  be- 
lieve in  idealistic  forces  of  the  real  nature  of  which  it  knows 
nothing.  It  has  been  doing  so  for  ages  past.  It  can  only  judgfe 
of  the  existence,  or  supposed  existence,  of  these  idealistic 
forces  from  certain  effects  commonly  attributed  to  them.  But 
when  you  approach  the  materialist,  who  has  been  accustomed 
"from  his  youth  up"  to  pin  his  faith  to  these  invisible,  so- 
called  forces — or  laws  of  nature — and  who  continually  trusts 
his  life  to  them,  and  you  ask  him  to  believe  in  the  existence  of 

203 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

a  Supreme  Intelligence,  a  divine  Energy,  the  great  first  Cause 
and  Creator,  the  infinite  Mind  which  is  God,  who  maintains 
the  harmony  of  the  spheres  and  is  the  ultimate  reality  back  of 
all  physical  phenomena,  you  will  probably  get  some  such  in- 
consequential and  inane  reply  as  this :  "How  can  I  believe  any- 
thing I  do  not  know  for  myself?"  If  he  applied  this  principle 
in  his  daily  life  I  know  of  no  circle  of  activity  where  he  would 
be  anything  but  a  dismal  failure,  and  a  fit  subject  for  the  lunatic 
asylum.  If  there  were  enough  other  people  of  the  same  way 
of  thinking,  it  would  put  a  stop  to  business  and  bankrupt 
society. 

Do  you  seriously  doubt  the  truth  of  the  formulations  con- 
tained in  the  Scientific  Statement  of  Being,  which  Mary  Baker 
Eddy  has  given  to  the  world  ?  The  supreme  test,  on  the  basis 
of  which  Jesus  Christ  asked  an  unbelieving  generation  to  ac- 
cept His  claim  as  the  Messiah,  is  the  supreme  test  of  Truth 
in  all  ages.  "Believe  for  the  very  work's  sake."  And  the 
pragmatic  test  for  this  age  is  akin  to  it  concerning  any  for- 
mulation of  truth.  It  is  a  test  based  on  these  questions :  "Is 
the  truth  a  demonstrable  one?"  "Does  it  work?"  "Is  it  some- 
thing which  can  be  known  by  its  fruits?"  "Is  it  attended  with 
results  that  can  be  expressed  in  terms  of  practical  experience  ?" 
Materia  medica  applies  the  very  same  tests  to  the  various  drug 
remedies  offered  for  its  use.  The  doctor  asks  at  once  "do 
they  work?"  "Will  they  effect  cures?"  And  it  is  upon  that 
basis  that  they  are  either  accepted  or  thrown  out  of  its  phar- 
macopoeia. 

Christian  Science  is  not  propounded  simply  as  a  philoso- 
phical or  metaphysical  doctrine,  the  product  of  the  study. 
This  scientific  statement  of  Being  to  which  I  have  referred  is 
an  underlying  tenet  of  the  Christian  Science  church,  a  church 
which  in  the  last  twenty  years  has  gained  a  foothold  in  nearly 
every  part  of  the  world  and  it  has  girdled  the  world  with  its 
churches   and    societies.      In   all   the   meetings   held   in    these 

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SCIENTIFIC   STATEMENT    OF   BEING 

churches  or  by  these  societies  this  scientific  statement  of  Being 
is  repeated  each  Sunday,  once  at  the  close  of  the  morning 
service  and  again  at  the  close  of  the  evening  service.  It  is  the 
epoch-making  event  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  bases  the 
faith  and  practice  of  a  religious  denomination  which  is  actually 
succeeding  in  restoring  primitive  Christianity  and  its  lost  ele- 
ment of  spiritual  healing  to  this  age,  and  is  fast  making  a  new 
history  for  the  human  race. 

The  blind  man  who  testified  to  his  healing  by  unorthodox 
methods,  practised  by  an  outsider,  was  thrown  out  of  the  syna- 
gogue by  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of  his  time.  In  this  age 
orthodoxy  has  improved  on  the  practice  of  these  religionists  of 
the  Jewish  church.  It  does  not  cast  out  of  its  sacred  precincts 
those  Christian  Scientists  who  believe  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  formula- 
tions of  truth  and  who  have  been  healed  by  the  power  of  that 
truth ;  it  refuses  them  letters  of  dismissal. 

When  you  realize  the  blessings  to  both  body  and  spirit 
which  the  Truth  brings  that  Mrs.  Eddy  has  given  to  this  age 
through  suffering  untold  and  during  years  of  unwearied  toil 
and  sacrifice;  when  you  find  that  it  actually  does  mean  free- 
dom to  the  spirit  and  healing  to  the  frame;  that  it  frees  you 
from  false  beliefs,  from  bondage  to  so-called  material  laws  and 
the  mesmerism  of  disease  that  have  held  you  as  with  fetters 
of  iron  to  sin,  sickness  and  mortality,  burdens,  which,  like  the 
old  man  of  the  sea,  the  race  has  carried  on  its  back  for  ages 
past ;  when  you  find  deliverance  from  that  which  has  hampered 
the  free  exercise  of  your  faculties,  clogged  your  body's  powers 
and  prevented  the  full  and  normal  action  of  both  body  and- 
mind  and  crowded  hope  and  cheer  and  happiness  out  of  your 
life;  when  this  truth  has  made  its  demonstration  in  your  own 
life,  you  will — well — you  cannot  do  less  than  to  hold  in  grateful 
memory  the  dear  woman  who  was  faithful  to  her  trust  in  storm 
and  stress,  that  she  might  give  that  Truth  to  you,  and  you 
needn't  feel  at  all  lonesome  because  of  this,  nor  in  a  class  by 

205 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

yourself.  There  is  a  couple  of  million  people,  and  their  num- 
ber is  constantly  increasing,  that  have  come  to  know  this  truth 
and  to  feel  the  same  way  that  you  do  towards  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science.  And  it  is  safe  to  say  that  three-fourths  of 
them  had  in  their  own  lives  an  experience  of  the  healing  power 
of  Christian  Science,  quite  as  real  and  helpful  as  your  own. 


We  wonder,  sometimes,  why  it  is  that  the  Christian  Science 
Church  is  such  a  power  in  the  land  for  good;  why  it  displays 
so  much  spiritual  vitality ;  why,  without  the  aid  of  those  exter- 
nal forms  and  ceremonies  which  men  are  wont  to  think  essen- 
tial to  a  well  ordered  religious  life;  why,  without  preacher  or 
choir,  or  those  sensuous  sanctities  and  sacraments  which  eccle- 
siasticism  provides  its  followers,  the  Christian  Science  services 
are  so  largely  attended.  What  is  it  that  crowds  its  churches 
and  holds  the  people  in  such  a  bond  of  unity?  What  are  the 
surface  indications? — the  reading  of  a  few  extracts  from  the 
Bible  accompanied  with  selections  from  the  Christian  Science 
Text-book : — is  that  all  ? 

What  is  it  that  crowds  the  Wednesday  night  testimony 
meetings,  and  fills  its  services  with  testimonies  of  heaHng? 
Why  is  Christian  Science  enabled  to  carry  on  such  a  successful 
ministry  to  the  spiritual  and  physical  needs  of  the  people, 
analagous  to  that  which  characterized  the  early  Christian 
church,  so  that  "from  the  snows  of  Alaska  to  the  Australian 
scrub  and  from  the  Pagodas  of  China  to  the  South  African 
veldt"  it  is  binding  Christian  Science  round  the  hemispheres 
and  carrying  the  story  of  Christian  Science  healing  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  How  is  it  that  this  movement,  so  devoid  of  all 
the  means  which  are  regarded  as  essential  to  the  undertaking 
of  a  successful  crusade,  and  from  which  there  has  been  so 
remarkable  an  elimination  of  personality,  should  nevertheless 
spread  all  over  the  globe? 

Is  it  because  Christian  Science  so  emphatically  exalts  the 

206 


SCIENTIFIC   STATEMENT    OF    BEING 

spiritual  man, — the  ideal  man,  made  in  the  image  and  likeness 
of  God, — and  the  Truth  which  Jesus  declared  "would  make  men 
free"  ?  Is  it  because  it  not  only  teaches  but  demonstrates  that 
His  mighty  works  were  based  on  the  operations  of  divine 
Principle,  before  which  sin  and  disease  lose  their  reality  in 
human  consciousness  and  so  disappear  as  naturally  and  as 
necessarily  as  darkness  gives  place  to  light  and  sin  to  reforma- 
tion? Is  it  because  it  teaches  and  demonstrates  that  these 
works  are  not  supernatural  but  supremely  natural,  that  they 
are  the  sign  of  Immanuel  or  *'God  with  Us" — ^a  divine  influence 
ever  present  in  human  consciousness,  coming  now  again  as 
was  promised  aforetime  **to  bring  deliverance  to  the  captives, 
the  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised." 

The  apostles  when  they  went  forth  to  conquer  the  world 
for  God  showed  their  credentials,  and  they  were  the  same  cre- 
dentials, the  same  works,  which  Jesus  claimed  were  confirma- 
tory of  His  mission.  Christian  Science  is  showing  the  same 
credentials  which  the  apostles  presented  to  an  unbelieving  age. 
It  is  doing  so  in  an  age  no  less  sceptical  and  antagonistic  and 
its  growth  is  no  less  remarkable  and  rapid  than  that  of  the 
early  Christian  church. 

There  must  be  an  adequate  cause  for  every  eflFect.  How 
else  can  we  account  for  the  wonderful  growth  of  the  Christian 
Science  movement?  On  what  other  grounds  are  we  to  attrib- 
ute its  remarkable  vitality  and  phenomenal  extension  to  all 
lands.  Is  it  because,  as  an  astute  editorial  writer  on  one  of  our 
dailies  remarked  the  other  day,  "Christian  Science  teachings  are" 
dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  society,"  because  "it  is  a  survival 
of  superstition  in  an  enlightened  age,"  and  flourishes  for  the 
reason  that  "civilization  and  education  are  not  yet  supreme  in 
the  world." 

Is  this  to  be  taken  as  a  rational  or  self-sufficing  explanation 
of  why  Christian  Scientists  are  sustained  by  such  an  invincible, 

207 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

living  faith  and  exhibit  such  a  superb  serenity  in  the  face  of 
abuse  and  persecution?  Does  it  furnish  a  conclusive  answer 
to  the  question :  "Why  has  Christian  Science  appealed  so  con- 
vincingly to  a  million  or  more  of  intelligent  men  and  women  in 
a  most  critical  and  searching  age ;  why  has  the  movement  made 
such  tremendous  strides  not  only  in  this  but  foreign  countries  ?" 

Rather  is  it  not  indicative  of  a  fatuous  inability  on  the 
part  of  this  watch-tower  observer  of  the  "signs  of  the  times"  to 
catch  the  significance  of  the  teachings  of  Christian  Science? 
Is  not  the  need  of  a  surgical  operation,  in  medical  parlance, 
"clearly  indicated" — in  view  of  such  an  obvious  failure  to  per- 
ceive or  appreciate  the  underlying  causes  or  basic  principles 
and  tendencies  which  have  made  Christian  Science  what  it  is, 
in  spite  of  a  most  persistent,  tireless  and  many-sided  opposition 
and  antagonism  on  the  part  of  Organized  Medicine,  Dogmatic 
Theology,  Ecclesiasticism  and  materialistic  science  and  phi- 
losophy as  well,  to  say  nothing  of  a  flood  of  sectarian  vitupera- 
tion which  would  have  swept  away  any  movement  less  firmly 
rooted  in  truth  ? 

What  say  you,  Members  of  the  Jury  ? 


208 


III. 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE:    DOES  IT  CONFLICT  WITH 
THE  BIBLE? 

I. 

THERE  are  those  who  say  that  Christian  Science  contra- 
dicts the  Bible.  This  contradiction  has  been  insisted 
upon  by  the  orthodox  churches,  and  they  have  consequently 
declined  to  extend  to  the  Science  churches  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship. 

A  charge  of  this  kind  naturally  raises  the  question:  "Is 
there  any  authoritative  or  accepted  standard  of  scriptural 
interpretation  by  means  of  which  the  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy 
of  any  given  sect  claiming  to  be  Christian  may  be  determined?" 
Christianity,  unfortunately,  is  divided  into  more  than  200  dif- 
ferent denominations  or  sects,  all  more  or  less  hopelessly  at 
variance  on  doctrinal  points  or  forms  of  worship.  In  New 
York  City,  for  instance,  there  are  sixty-five  Christian  de- 
nominations which  accept  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  and  yet 
are  in  disagreement  as  to  polity,  theology  or  ritual,  and  until 
recently  have  denied  their  neighbor  a  right  to  the  name  of 
Christian. 

Many  of  the  dogmas,  traditions  and  theological  creeds,  and 
time  honored  systems  of  scholastic  theology  for  which  Biblical 
sanction  is  claimed,  no  longer  command  the  approval  of  mod- 
ern schools  of  thought.  To  anyone  who  knows  the  currents 
of  thought  which  have  been  working  during  our  century  and 
which  are  working  still  more  powerfully,  it  must  be  evident 
as  Prof.  Chas.  A.  Briggs  has  observed,  "that  in  a  few  years 

209 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

not  a  single  Protestant  confession  of  faith  or  catechism  will 
retain  binding  authority  in  any  denomination." 

Orthodox  theologians  continue  to  hold  tenaciously  to  the 
dogma  of  post  mortem  rewards  and  punishments,  as  a  basic 
principle  in  doctrine,  and  employ  the  hope  of  reward  and  the 
fear  of  punishment  as  an  incentive  or  restraint,  but  the  fact  is, 
hell  has  no  place  in  either  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  as 
we  have  already  shown  in  the  chapter  on  theological  formulas. 
Organized  Christianity  clings  as  determinedly  to  its  belief  in 
the  reality  of  evil  as  something  to  train  character  and  to  be 
finally  transmuted  into  good.  It  believes  in  the  existence  of  a 
personal  devil,  who  has  been  busy  ever  since  creation  success- 
fully thwarting  the  purposes  of  a  beneficient  Creator  bent  upon 
restoring  humanity  to  its  original  state  of  virtue  and  happiness. 
"The  whole  Christian  superstructure,"  says  a  recent  religious 
writer,  "is  built  upon  the  belief  in  a  definite  evil  being. 
Destroy  the  Devil  and  we  at  once  destroy  all  reason  for  man's 
present  deplorable  condition." 

The  doctrine  of  the  reality  of  evil  as  a  personified  evil 
power,  may  be  a  foundation  support  for  the  superstructure 
of  organized  Christianity  as  it  exists  to-day,  but  Jesus  Christ 
did  not  warrant  such  teaching,  nor  did  He  make  it  an  essential 
element  of  that  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth  which  He  came 
to  set  up.  He  overthrew  the  supposition  that  the  devil  (evil) 
has  power,  by  proving  its  powerlessness,  in  the  saving  of  the 
sinful,  the  healing  of  the  sick  and  the  raising  of  the  dead. 
His  demonstrations  excelled  the  influence  of  the  dead  faiths 
and  ceremonies  of  the  priests  of  His  time,  even  as  the  healing 
power  of  the  Gospel  brought  to  this  age  by  Christian  Science 
excels  in  like  manner  the  outlived  faiths  and  dogmas  of  organ- 
ized Christianity  and  puts  the  priesthood  to  an  open  shame. 

The  question  of  the  origin  of  evil,  since  Jesus  said  that  evil 
(the  devil)  "hath  no  truth  in  him"  and  hence  that  evil  has  no 
real  existence,  entity  or  power,  may  be  fittingly  relegated,  as 

210 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

a  recent  writer  has  suggested,  to  the  consideration  of  such  sage 
schoolmen  as  in  the  past  were  wont  to  discuss  the  question  of 
the  total  number  of  devils  that  at  the  same  instant  could  dis- 
port themselves  upon  a  needle's  point. 

On  the  subject  of  eternal  punishment  orthodox  Christian- 
ity is  quite  as  unscriptural  as  in  its  doctrine  of  a  devil  who 
populates  hell  with  human  beings.  Jesus  Christ  set  forth  His 
mission  and  the  essence  of  Christianity  in  the  first  reported 
sermon  that  He  preached.  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me, 
because  He  hath  annointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
poor;  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the 
blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised."  There  is  no 
hint  or  suggestion  here  of  the  doctrine  of  an  endless  hell  for 
the  unreclaimed  heathen.  Nevertheless,  the  American  Board 
of  Missions  deliberately  excludes  from  its  Foreign  service  all 
missionaries  who  do  not  believe  in  the  eternal  damnation  of 
pagans  ignorant  of  Christ,  and  all  missionaries  not  ready  to  tell 
pagan  audiences  that  their  religion  is  a  damnable  error  and 
that  for  entertaining  it  their  ancestry  has  been  doomed  to  per- 
dition. As  Lyman  Abbott  well  observes,  "this  doctrine  is  as 
repugnant  to  Scripture  as  it  is  to  sound  philosophy  and  human 
sentiment." 

It  is  possible  for  a  great  clerical  or  sacerdotal  organiza- 
tion to  present  the  most  perfectly  organized  and  administrative 
ecclesiasticism  and  yet  to  effectually  exclude  the  living  Spirit 
of  God.  We  may  well  ask,  "how  does  all  this  accentuation  of 
church  polity,  theology  and  ritual,  compare  with  the  spirit  of 
Christ?  "The  answer  to  this  question,"  says  Dr.  Abbott,  "is 
perfectly  plain — not  at  all." 

"H  His  church,"  as  Dr.  Fairbairn  has  pertinently  observed, 
"had  conformed  to  His  ideal,  had  followed  His  method  in  His 
spirit,  who  could  tell  what  man  would  have  to-day?  All  we 
can  say  is,  the  vision  of  the  seer  of  Patmos,  who  saw  the  King- 

211 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

doms  of  the  world  become  the  kingdom  of  our  God  and  of  His 
Christ,  would  have  been  infinitely  nearer  fulfilment  than  it  is." 


II. 

As  a  preliminary  to  passing  judgment  on  Christian  Science, 
it  seems  to  me  as  a  lay  observer,  that  the  churches  which  com- 
pose organized  Christianity  ought  first  to  make  up  their  dif- 
ferences on  doctrinal  points.  Not  only  should  they  agree 
among  themselves  as  to  what  the  Bible  teaches,  and  as  to  what 
are  the  essentials  of  the  Christian  religion  by  which  conformity 
may  be  measured;  they  should  square  themselves  with  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  on  the  subject  of  healing.  Healing 
is,  or  should  be,  quite  as  much  a  part  of  their  mission  as 
preaching;  in  fact,  no  orthodoxy  can  claim  to  be  Christian 
which  denies  the  healing  power  of  the  Truth  which  Jesus 
proclaimed  and  illustrated  in  His  healing  ministry. 

But  if  the  orthodox  expounders  of  Scripture  are  in  hope- 
less disagreement  among  themselves  as  to  what  the  Bible 
teaches ;  they  are  quite  as  hopelessly  at  sea  as  to  what  Christian 
Science  teaches.  Scarcely  any  two  of  them  agree  in  their  con- 
clusions. In  fact,  most  of  them  openly  and  frankly  admit  that 
they  have  not  studied  or  else  do  not  understand  Science  and 
Health;  others,  for  the  most  part,  form  their  judgments  from 
what  someone  else  has  said  about  it.  But  what  they  lack  in 
understanding  of  Christian  Science  they  counterbalance  in 
abuse  of  its  founder. 

Take  for  instance,  the  two  divines  who  succeeded  to  Beech- 
er's  pulpit  in  Plymouth  Church.  One  of  them  has  pictured 
Mrs.  Eddy  as  Delilah  luring  people  into  a  fancied  security  that 
she  may  the  better  accomplish  their  overthrow.  You  can  run 
across  this  statement  if  you  care  to  search  the  files  of  The 
Outlook.  Fancy  Mrs.  Eddy  shearing  the  long-haired  and 
mighty  intellectuals  of  the  orthodox  hosts  that  she  might  de- 

212 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

liver  them  over  to  the  Philistines  of  this  materialistic  age,  to 
grind  in  the  prison  house  or  to  make  sport  in  the  temple  of 
Mammon,  their  God.  With  apologies  to  Louis  Mann,  "It  is  to 
laugh."  The  distinguished  divine  has  unwittingly  made  a  dis- 
tinct contribution  to  the  gaiety  of  nations. 

His  successor  preached  a  sermon  against  Christian  Science 
soon  after  the  Plymouth  Church  episode,  when  the  Christian 
Science  authorities  gracefully  relinquished  the  church  after 
hiring  it  from  the  trustees.  This  they  did  in  deference  to  the 
feelings  of  the  pastor  and  some  of  the  congregation  and  in 
the  interest  of  Christian  harmony.  In  that  sermon  the  noted 
divine  confessed  his  inability  to  understand  Christian  Science 
teachings;  nevertheless,  he  proceeded  to  characterize  Science 
and  Health  as  "intellectual  mush,"  as  a  sort  of  metaphysical 
"fly  paper  to  catch  unwary  souls."  Not  much  in  the  way  of 
coherent  argument  against  Christian  Science  in  this — is  there 
for  our  Jury  to  consider? 

Another  prominent  divine,  occupying  a  Fifth  Avenue  de- 
nominational fortress  and  permeated  by  a  somewhat  similar 
idea,  called  Mrs.  Eddy  a  metaphysical  witch  and  siren  and 
thundered  through  the  columns  of  its  weekly  periodical, 
"Christian  Science  is  both  unscientific  and  unchristian,"  a  catch 
phrase  so  shop\yorn  as  to  be  beyond  all  possibility  of  renova- 
tion. 

But  on  what  grounds  is  Christian  Science  to  be  adjudged 
unscientific?  What  is  science?  Natural  science,  I  suppose  the 
good  Doctor  means.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  answers  the  question 
substantially  as  follows:  "Science  is  the  present  state  of  hu-*^ 
man  knowledge  on  the  part  of  men  of  study  and  research 
concerning  the  phenomena  visible  to  the  corporeal  senses." 

"The  truths  of  science  are  admirable  and  quite  real,  but 
there  is  nothing  ultimate  about  them.  They  are  stages  on  the 
road  to  achievement,  a  difficult  and  infinite  road.  Science 
aims  at  reality but  the  intermediate  steps,  however,  are 

213 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

likely  to  be  imperfect — our  knowledge  as  expressed  by  even 
the  highest  science  is  necessarily  partial  and  incomplete;  it 
only  deals  with  aspects.  Divisions  and  classifications  are  ar- 
bitrary— they  are  human  conveniences — but  Truth  itself  is  con- 
tinuous." ^ 

Materialism  or  naturalism  as  a  self-sufficing  theory  of  the 
universe  is  discredited  by  the  best  scientific  minds.  Science 
abounds  with  theories,  hypotheses  and  daring  conjectures  con- 
cerning the  origin  and  nature  of  things  and  is  constantly  chang- 
ing its  attitude  and  standpoint  towards  the  scientific  questions 
of  the  day. 

Lord  Kelvin,  the  present  dean  of  the  physical  scientists, 
in  a  speech  delivered  in  Glasgow  in  1896  and  quoted  by  a 
contributor  to  the  Boston  Transcript  of  May  24,  1905,  said  of 
his  long  and  notable  list  of  discoveries :  "One  word  character- 
izes the  most  strenuous  efforts  for  the  advancement  of  science 
that  I  have  made  perseveringly  during  fifty-five  years — that 
word  is  failure.  I  know  no  more  of  electric  and  magnetic 
force,  or  of  the  relation  between  ether,  electricity,  and  ponder- 
able matter,  or  of  chemical  affinity  than  I  knew  and  tried  to 
teach  my  students  of  natural  philosophy  in  my  first  session  as 
a  professor." 

The  scientist  has  chased  matter  from  molecule  to  atom  and 
from  atom  to  particle  and  from  particle  to  electron  and  from 
electron  to  energy  and  motion,  and  from  motion  into  electricity 
and  then  into  some  mode  of  motion  of  the  ether  of  space, 
where  it  has  lost  every  material  property  and  is  resolved  into 
its  native  nothingness.  He  has  studied  the  problem  of  man's 
origin  and  nature  until  there  is  a  growing  consensus  of  opinion 
on  the  part  of  a  most  distinguished  body  of  scientists  that  man 
is  of  the  essence  of  Divinity.  Both  conclusions  were  anticipated 
by  Mary  Baker  Eddy  over  thirty  years  ago.     That  God  is  In- 

^Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  Reason  and  Belief,  pages  yy  and  81. 

214 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

finite  Spirit ;  that  man  partakes  of  His  nature  and  is  therefore 
spiritual  and  not  material  and  not  subject  to  decay  and  death; 
that  matter  has  no  attribute  of  Spirit,  and  no  inherent  reality 
or  substance,  and  therefore  possesses  neither  life,  intelligence 
nor  sensation  in  and  of  itself,  is  the  essence  of  Christian 
Science.  These  are  the  fundamental  or  basic  principles  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings. 

According  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  term  Science,  properly  under- 
stood, refers  only  to  the  laws  of  God  and  to  His  government 
of  the  universe  including  man.  God's  laws  are  perfect  and 
eternal,  and  are  evidenced  by  the  healing  of  disease  and  other 
manifestations  of  control  over  discordant  conditions  as  demon- 
strated by  Jesus  Christ  and  the  early  Christian  church.  Ma- 
terialistic Science  has  made  the  mistake  of  accepting  the  hu- 
man mentality  in  its  entirety  as  a  basis  for  its  systems  of 
thought  and  its  formulations  of  human  knowledge.  Christian 
Science  challenges  the  validity  of  a  mentality  made  up  of  self- 
evident  contradictions  and  asserts  that  human  thought  is  only 
real  as  it  reflects  the  Divine  thought. 

The  scientific  notion  that  the  laws  of  the  universe  are  ma- 
terial, instead  of  spiritual,  has  led  mankind  to  look  upon  the 
miracles  of  the  Bible,  either  as  violations  of  law  or  a  direct 
interposition  of  Deity,  or  else  as  mere  fiction.  They  were  not 
understood,  and  so  were  relegated  to  the  past.  In  miracles, 
God's  will  seems  to  conflict  with  His  law,  and  the  more  pro- 
gressive thinkers  found  it  difficult  or  impossible  to  reconcile 
a  personal  will  in  God  with  a  universe  of  law  and  order. 

Within  the  last  century  the  advancing  thought,  grown  tirea 
of  creeds  and  dogmas  and  uncertain  scientific  theories  and 
speculation,  has  been  crying  out  for  the  practical  and  certain, 
the  helpful  and  spiritual  in  religion.  A  higher  revelation,  a 
truer  conception  of  God  and  His  will  has  become  a  necessity. 
Only  a  demonstrable  religion  can  satisfy  the  truly  scientific 
spirit  of  this  age. 

215 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Christian  Science  in  imparting  a  definite  knowledge  of 
Spiritual  law,  has  revealed  the  truth  about  the  miracles  re- 
corded in  the  Scriptures.  It  teaches  and  demonstrates,  that 
those  unusual  works  were  performed  in  accord  with  law  that 
they  were  not  extraordinary  occurrences  whose  repetition  is 
impossible  or  unlikely,  but  are  equally  possible  to-day  with  a 
similar  understanding  of  God's  unchanging  laws. 

But  is  Christian  Science  unchristian  ?  Dr.  Buckley  sounded 
the  charge  and  orthodoxy  has  echoed  it  ever  since,  seemingly 
overlooking  the  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  made  the  supreme  test 
of  love,  loyalty  and  fellowship  with  him  to  consist  in  keeping 
his  commandments.  Among  these  commands  was  the  com- 
mission not  only  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  to  say  "the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  is  at  hand,"  but  also  to  heal  the  sick,  which 
last  especially  involve  the  duty  to  demonstrate  the  approach 
and  reality  of  his  Kingdom  in  the  lives  of  his  followers. 
Orthodoxy  is  confessedly  derelict  in  its  obedience  to  this 
command.  True,  it  has  set  apart  a  priesthood  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  but  it  has  handed  over  the  healing  of  the  sick  to  a 
medical  profession  which  is  thoroughly  materialistic  in  its  pro- 
fessional work  and  may  be  purely  infidel.  Christian  Science 
is  confessedly  faithful  in  fulfilling  this  commission. 

"The  fulfilment  of  the  grand  verities  of  Christian  healing 
belong  to  every  period,  as  Jesus'  declaration  in  John  xiv-12 
plainly  declares,  and  as  primitive  Christianity  confirms.  His 
words  are  unmistakable,  for  they  form  propositions  of  self- 
evident,  demonstrable  truth.  Doctrines  that  deny  the  substance 
and  practicability  of  all  Christ's  teachings  cannot  be  evangel- 
ical; and  evangelical  religion  can  be  established  on  no  other 
claim  than  the  authenticity  of  the  gospels  which  support  un- 
equivocably  the  proof  that  Christian  Science  as  defined  and 
practised  by  Jesus,  heals  the  sick,  casts  out  error  and  will  de- 
stroy death. "^ 


1  Miscellaneous  Writings,  page  192. 

216 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND    THE  BIBLE 

Christian  Science  lays  especial  stress  upon  the  command  of 
the  Master  to  heal  the  sick  and  to  do  greater  works  than  those 
which  He  did.  Mrs.  Eddy's  language  on  this  point  is  most 
emphatic : 

"Though  a  man  were  begirt  with  the  Urim  and  Thummim 
of  priestly  office,  yet  should  deny  the  validity  or  permanence 
of  Christ's  command  to  heal  in  all  ages,  this  denial  would  dis- 
honor that  office  and  misinterpret  evangelical  religion."^ 

The  question  is  therefore  a  pertinent  one;  "which  is  the 
more  Christian,  unorthodox  Christian  Science  which  accepts 
and  emphasizes  Jesus'  commission  by  its  works,  or  orthodox 
Christianity  which  has  ceased  to  function,  so  far  as  spiritual 
healing  is  concerned?" 

Jesus  met  the  demand  of  John  the  Baptist,  "Art  thou  the 
Christ?"  by  referring  to  the  works  which  he  performed.  He 
has  made  the  ability  to  in  some  measure  perform  His  works 
the  test  of  the  genuineness  of  His  professed  followers'  claims 
to  the  title  of  Christian.  After  two  thousand  years  of  religious 
education,  is  it  not  a  startling  commentary  upon  our  latter 
day  Clerics,  to  find  them  denouncing  as  heretical  the  one 
Church  which  has  accepted  and  is  fulfilling  the  Christ  test 
"in  spirit  and  in  truth." 

III. 

It  is  claimed  that  Christian  Science  contradicts  the  Bible 
in  its  teachings  concerning  the  nature  and  destiny  of  man? 
The  Scriptures  contain  two  records  of  creation,  both  given  in 
the  opening  chapters  of  Genesis.  Christian  Science  can* 
scarcely  contradict  both  accounts,  for  one  is  a  spiritual  and 
the  other  a  materialistic  narration  of  man's  origin  and  Christian 
Science  teaches  that  man  is  spiritual  and  not  material.  The 
first  account — the  Elohoistic  story  as  it  is  termed — is  the  scien- 
tific record  of  creation  by  a  scientist  who  perceived  its  glorious 

^Miscellaneous  Writings,  page  194. 

217 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

spiritual  signification.  The  second,  or  Jehovistic  account,  is 
materialistic,  in  fact,  so  thoroughly  materialistic  as  to  shut 
out  any  apprehension  of  the  nature  and  operation  of  Spirit. 

This  spiritual  account,  by  transposition  of  the  Pentateuch 
writers,  comes  first  in  the  record  of  Genesis  and  forms  the 
impressive  opening  chapter.  Professor  Sayce,  a  great 
scholar  and  Biblical  authority,  describes  it  as  "a  noble  and 
simple  declaration  of  the  making  of  all  things  by  God,  who  is 
one,  holy  and  benevolent,"  and  characterizes  it  as  expressing 
wonderful  spiritual  discernment  and  insight. 

The  materialism  of  the  earlier  account  is  of  the  most  pro- 
nounced type.  It  presents  a  material,  sensual  and  mortal 
theory  of  the  universe  and  of  man's  origin,  in  which  evil  is 
accepted  as  a  fact  of  experience  whose  origin  an  attempt  is 
made  to  solve.  There  is  a  total  absence  of  anything  approach- 
ing a  spiritual  view  of  man.  In  the  first  chapter  God  is  de- 
clared to  have  made  man  in  His  own  image  and  likeness  by  a 
single  command.  In  the  second  chapter  He  is  represented  as 
forming  man's  body  out  of  dust  into  which  he  breathed  "the 
breath  of  life." 

How  this  senseless  figure  became  possessed  of  a  skeleton 
framework,  overlaid  with  muscles;  how  it  became  possessed  of 
respiratory  organs  and  a  circulating  system  with  capacities 
for  prolonging  existence  by  means  of  food  utilized  through 
various  digestive  or  assimilative  processes ;  whether  God  made 
the  body  complete  and  the  living  soul  simply  started  the  ma- 
chinery going,  or  whether  the  living  soul  had  something  to 
do  in  the  creation  of  its  functional  organs  or  capacities,  or 
whether  it  was  the  medium  whereby  the  body  was  changed 
from  inanimate  to  animate  clay,  the  materialistic  biographer 
neglects  to  tell  us.  He  leaves  it  a  subject  of  speculation  and 
such  it  has  remained  until  in  these  latter  days  science  is  com- 
ing to  understand  more  about  the  real  origin  and  destiny  of 
man  than  this  early  materialist  did. 

218 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  God  pronounced  good  all 
that  He  created,  and  the  Scriptures  declare  that  He  created  all. 
In  the  second  chapter  He  is  represented  as  creating  the  tree 
of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  In  this  account  evil  is  given 
its  first  recognition  in  Scripture.  The  knowledge  of  evil  is 
here  regarded  as  real,  and  hence  as  God-bestowed,  as  the 
knowledge  of  good.  God  is  represented  as  instituting  evil 
and  creating  this  fruit-bearing  tree  of  sin.  Out  of  this  nar- 
rative materialism  has  evolved  the  theory  that  God  created 
evil  as  a  necessary  adjunct  of  a  well  ordered  cosmos  of  human 
experience,  so  that  man  may  know  evil  as  well  as  good  and 
may  perfect  himself  by  learning  to  reject  the  worst,  after  an 
experience  of  its  inadequacy  and  the  sorrow  and  misery  to 
which  it  leads.  Yet  this  theory  ignores  completely  the  fact 
that  God  took  especial  pains,  by  express  and  dire  threats,  to 
keep  the  race  out  of  the  knowledge  of  evil,  a  knowledge,  or 
rather  a  belief  in  the  reality  of  evil  which  has  been  the  cause 
of  untold  misery  ever  since. 

This  theory  is  also  destructive  of  the  character  of  God, 
because  if  evil  existed  in  the  Mind  of  God,  this  assumption  of 
evil  and  error  would  dethrone  the  perfection  of  Deity.  The 
Bible  is  not  a  book  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  and  it 
distinctly  teaches  that  God  is  of  too  pure  eyes  to  look  upon 
evil.  Sin,  sickness  and  death  have  no  record  in  the  Elohoistic 
introduction  of  Genesis,  wherein  God  creates  the  heavens, 
earth  and  man.  Until  that  which  contradicts  the  truth  of 
being  enters  into  the  arena,  evil  has  no  history,  and  it  is,  in 
the  view  of  the  founder  of  Christian  Science,  brought  into 
view  only  as  the  unreal  in  contra-distinction  to  the  real  and 
eternal. 

Man's  environment,  according  to  this  materialistic  narrative, 
was  as  material  as  his  nature.  He  is  placed  in  a  garden  full 
of  things  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good  for  food;  a  place 
"where  every  prospect  pleased"  and  the  materialistic  sense  of 

219 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  fitness  and  fulness  of  things  found  ample  gratification;  a 
state  of  existence  where  there  was  an  abundance  of  good 
things  to  eat,  plenty  of  beautiful  things  to  look  at ;  easy  hours 
of  labor,  abundance  of  leisure  for  enjoying  one's  self  and  giv- 
ing free  rein  to  every  impulse  except  in  one  specific  direction. 

But  here  the  account  takes  note  of  an  important  oversight 
in  the  creation  of  human  life  upon  this  planet.  God  had  pro- 
vided for  the  propagation  of  animal  life  of  all  kinds  by  creat- 
ing the  order  of  male  and  female,  except  in  the  case  of  hu- 
man beings.  How  human  life  was  to  be  perpetuated  does  not 
appear  at  first,  and  one  may  surmise  or  conjecture  as  to  how 
God  originally  intended  to  provide  for  this  flaw  in  the  origin 
of  the  human  species.  There  is  however  a  reference  to  Adam's 
loneliness  and  need  of  a  companion  which  God  supplied  in  a 
thoroughly  original  manner  by  making  a  woman  out  of  one 
of  Adam's  ribs,  as  if  the  supply  of  "dust"  had  given  out.  But 
this  was  done  ostensibly  as  a  mere  concession  to  Adam's  need 
of  companionship. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  have  an  account  of  the 
origin  and  nature  of  man,  in  which  the  glorious  fact  of  crea- 
tion is  announced,  viz. :  that  God  made  man,  male  and  female, 
in  His  image  and  likeness,  that  is  spiritually  conceived  and 
evolved.  In  the  materialistic  account,  God  finds  it  necessary 
to  take  Adam  into  partnership,  not  only  to  secure  a  suitable 
companion  for  him  by  making  him  the  basis  for  the  creation 
of  a  woman,  but  to  institute  a  union  between  Adam  and  the 
woman  in  order  to  provide  a  new  order  of  generation  for  the 
human  species,  and  thus  preserve  the  race  from  extinction. 
But  if  man  is  a  spiritual  creation,  as  the  Scriptures  declare, 
then,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  has  profoundly  said — "Life  is  not  embry- 
onic, it  is  infinite.  An  Qgg  is  an  impossible  enclosure  for  Deity. ^ 

Biology  teaches  that  the  origin  of  life  is  to  be  foimd  in  a 
material  seed,  the  cell  or  protoplasm,  that  this  cell  must  decay 

1  Science  and  Health,  page  550. 

220 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

in  order  to  propagate  the  species  and  the  resultant  germ  be 
doomed  to  the  same  routine.  According  to  the  Scriptures, 
Adam  was  ceated  before  Eve  hence  it  is  seen  that  he  did  not 
spring  from  a  material  egg.  Eve  was  formed  from  Adam's 
rib,  not  from  a  foetal  ovum.  The  theory  which  the  material- 
istic biologist  has  adopted  to  account  for  human  origin,  viz.: 
that  the  ovum  is  the  point  of  emergence  for  the  human  race, 
may  be  replaced  by  other  theories  equally  materialistic.  At 
present  the  cell  theory  holds  the  field  and  has  superseded  the 
ancient  superstition  about  man's  creation  from  the  dust. 

The  Lord  Jehovah  is  represented  as  introducing  two 
changes  in  the  original  modus  operandi  of  instituting  human 
life,  viz. :  that  both  the  dust  method  and  the  rib  method  for 
some  unstated  reason  should  be  discarded,  and  that  man  should 
henceforth  be  born  of  woman.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  pertinently  ob- 
served, 

'Tf,  in  the  beginning,  man's  body  originated  in  non-intelli- 
gent dust,  and  mind  was  afterwards  put  into  the  body  by  the 
Creator,  why  is  not  this  divine  order  still  maintained  by  God  in 
perpetuating  the  species?  Who  will  say  that  minerals,  vege- 
tables, and  animals  have  a  propagating  property  of  their  own? 
Who  dare  to  say  either  that  God  is  in  matter  or  that  matter 
exists  without  God?  Has  man  sought  out  other  creative  in- 
ventions, and  so  changed  the  method  of  his  Maker  ?"^ 

But  let  us  return  to  the  materialistic  account  of  what  fol- 
lows the  debut  of  evil.  One  of  the  animals  which  God  is 
represented  as  having  made  and  which  is  described  as  being 
more  subtile  than  any  beast  of  the  field,  comes  in  the  gu;*se 
of  a  talking  serpent  and  suggests  that  Eve  disobey  God's  com- 
mand and  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  good  and  evil.  Strange 
that  the  snake  did  not  also  suggest  that  she  take  of  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  life  so  that  she  might  thus  escape  the  death  penalty 
which  God  had  imposed  in  case  she  followed  the  suggestion 

^  Science  and  Health,  page  531. 

221 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

of  the  serpent!  Or  did  he  omit  to  do  so  through  maHce  afore- 
thought? Evidently  neither  the  serpent  nor  Eve  were  im- 
pressed as  deeply  as  they  ought  to  have  been  with  the  serious- 
ness of  the  threat  which  God  has  made.  Eve  is  represented  as 
seeing  the  fruit  as  good  for  food,  besides  being  beautiful  in 
appearance  and  something  to  be  greatly  desired,  "to  make  one 
wise,"  and  so  "she  took  the  fruit  thereof  and  did  eat  and  gave 
also  to  her  husband,  and  he  did  eat." 

The  whole  story  is  a  relic  of  snake  worship.  You  will 
find  traces  of  this  ancient  worship  of  knowledge  under  the 
form  of  a  snake  in  many  parts  of  the  world ;  indeed  there  are 
some  lands  even  to-day,  where  this  worship  still  survives. 
"A  reverent  king  removed  the  brazen  serpent  out  of  the  house 
of  Yahweh,"  says  Allen  Upward,  "but  no  one  has  been  rev- 
erent enough  to  remove  the  Serpent  myth  out  of  the  Book 
of  Yahweh." 

Section  two  of  the  story  deals  with  the  consequences  of 
this  alleged  disobedience  of  our  first  parents.  God,  the  in- 
finite Creator,  is  presented  in  human  guise,  walking  in  the 
garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day.  His  Omniscience  is  thrown  into 
the  background.  As  a  human  father.  He  questions  His  chil- 
dren to  find  out  what  mischief  they  had  been  doing.  Eve 
confessed,  so  did  Adam,  but  Adam  seems  to  have  proved  equal 
to  the  occasion,  for  he  had  the  assurance  to  put  the  blame  on 
God  himself  as  well  as  on  woman  for  his  dereliction.  This 
boldness  evidently  made  an  impression  on  the  great  Creator, 
from  what  follows  later  in  the  story.  God  had  told  them 
explicitly  that  if  they  ate  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  good  and 
evil,  that  very  day  they  should  surely  die.  Like  many  an 
earthly  parent  he  seemed  reluctant  to  carry  out  what  seems 
to  have  been  a  hasty  threat.  Judged  by  the  usual  standard  of 
parental  discipline,  this  was  a  bad  breach.  But  He  threat- 
ened to  do  what  many  an  earthly  parent  has  vowed  he  would 

222 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

do  to  his  children  in  case  of  disobedience,  namely,  make  them 
''sweat  for  it."  And  so  in  a  passion  God  puts  Adam  to  work 
to  earn  his  own  living  by  onerous  toil,  first  taking  pains  to 
curse  the  ground  to  make  sure  that  Adam  would  have  a  hard 
time  of  it.  God  spared  none  of  the  actors  in  this  drama,  which 
reached  so  swift  and  fateful  a  climax.  For  Eve  He  had  no 
pity.  He  told  her  that  He  would  greatly  multiply  her  troubles 
in  life.  He  decreed  her  to  be  the  slave  of  her  husband,  and 
that  her  child-bearing  should  be  attended  with  much  suffering 
and  sorrow.  The  serpent  he  doomed  to  a  grovelling  life  in 
dust  of  the  earth. 

For  God  to  sow  enmity  between  the  seed  of  the  serpent  and 
Eve's  seed  seems  a  work  of  supererogation,  for  there  must 
have  been  bitterness  enough  already  in  the  heart  of  Eve  and 
of  Adam  towards  their  deceiver.  Throughout  the  whole  in- 
terview God  is  depicted  as  a  cold,  heartless,  unfeeling  tyrant, 
not  only  venting  His  cruel  rage  upon  those  whom  He  had 
brought  into  being,  but  laying  a  curse  upon  all  mankind  that 
should  come  after  them,  because  Adam  and  Eve  stole  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil  from  Him! 

In  the  first  chapter  God  gave  man  dominion  over  the  earth 
which  He  blessed  for  man's  sake.  Here  He  is  presented  as 
changing  His  mind,  literally  implying  that  God  deliberately 
withheld  from  man  the  opportunity  to  reform,  lest  he  should 
improve  it  and  so  become  better.  He  turns  Adam  and  Eve 
out  of  the  beautiful  home  which  He  had  given  them ;  He  sends 
them  forth  into  a  world  which  He  had  cursed  for  their  sake 
that  it  might  bring  forth  thorns  and  thistles,  leaving  them  to 
take  care  of  themselves  as  best  they  could  until  they  returned 
to  the  dust  out  of  which  He  had  taken  them. 

This  whole  conception  of  God  is  most  demeaning.  No 
human  father,  however  furious  and  ungovernable  his  temper, 
would  think  of  passing  the  death  sentence  upon  his  first-born 

223 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

son  and  daughter  for  a  single  act  of  disobedience.  For  God 
to  destroy  in  a  fit  of  passion  the  children  into  whom  He  had 
breathed  a  part  of  His  very  self,  and  thus  leave  Himself  child- 
less, is  a  pagan,  mythological,  God-dishonoring  and  blighting 
conception  of  the  nature  and  attributes  of  God. 

It  does  not  appear  what  was  to  become  of  the  living  soul 
which  God  had  breathed  into  the  inanimate  figure  He  had 
fashioned.  The  materialistic  scientist  could  not  answer  the 
question  then,  nor  can  he  answer  it  any  better  now.  We  can 
only  infer  from  this  account  that  the  breath  of  life  must  have 
been  as  mutable  and  mortal  as  the  body  itself.  God  forbade 
Adam  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life  lest  his  existence  on  this  planet 
would  be  prolonged  indefinitely.  The  conclusion  that  both  soul 
and  body  were  mortal  is  further  strengthened  by  God's  de- 
cree :  "Dust  thou  art  and  unto  dust  shall  thou  return."  This 
wholly  materialistic  conception  of  man's  origin  and  nature, 
raises  the  question  "was  the  breath  of  life  which  God  breathed 
into  man  His  own  breath,  a  part  of  Himself?  If  so,  was  He 
as  material  as  the  man  which  He  had  thus  created  ? 

But  while  God  barred  Adam  and  Eve  from  the  garden  and 
denied  them  access  to  the  tree  of  life  and  doomed  Adam  to 
return  to  dust.  He  nevertheless  chose  to  suspend  indefinitely 
the  death  sentence.  It  does  not  appear  that  He  established  any 
age  limit  until  a  much  later  period ;  in  fact,  man  was  allowed 
to  live  a  most  unconscionable  length  of  time,  longer  than  hu- 
man beings  have  ever  lived  since.  Could  it  have  been  possible 
that  the  watch  over  the  tree  of  life  was  relaxed,  or  the  cher- 
ubim withdrawn  and  that  Adam  managed  somehow  to  gain 
entrance  to  the  garden  and  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
life?  At  all  events,  God  seemed  to  have  completely  forgotten 
all  about  that  little  scene  in  the  Garden.  It  would  have  been 
a  good  thing  if  the  human  race  had  also  forgotten  it.  There 
would  have  been  a  vastly  less  preponderance  of  misery  over 
happiness  in  human  experience. 

224 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND    THE   BIBLE 

I  do  not  mean  to  be  irreverent  in  my  attitude  towards  the 
Bible.  I  accept  and  revere  the  spiritual  signification  of  its 
terms,  but  the  barest  recital  of  the  salient  features  of  this 
materialistic  story  of  man's  creation  and  downfall  carries  its 
own  refutation  as  an  authoritative  account  of  man's  origin  and 
God's  attributes.  Matter  has  no  ability  to  sin  and  suffer,  nor 
is  spirit,  God,  injected  into  dust  and  eventually  ejected  at  the 
demand  of  matter.  Yet  this  materialistic  account  represents 
Spirit  as  entering  dust  and  losing  the  divine  nature  and  omni- 
potence. 

The  whole  narrative  which  I  have  followed  closely,  exalts 
the  validity  of  matter  and  dethrones  the  validity  of  spirit  and 
Spirit's  creations.  It  flatly  contradicts  the  spiritually  correct 
account  of  the  creation  of  the  universe  and  presents  God,  the 
infinite  Creator,  in  the  guise  of  a  fallible,  frailable,  malevolent, 
anthropomorphic  being,  full  of  human  weakness.  It  is  a  most 
demeaning  conception  of  Deity  and  gives  point  to  Ingersoll's 
irreverent  jest,  "An  honest  God  is  the  noblest  work  of  man." 
With  reverence,  I  declare  that  such  a  Deity  could  have  no 
claim  to  our  confidence.  We  may  forgive  the  materialistic 
scientist  of  the  present  age  if  he  declines  to  accept  this  parody 
on  God,  or  relapses  into  blank  atheism,  which  is  quite  excus- 
able, nay,  becomes  a  virtue,  if  this  account  be  the  truth  con- 
cerning the  nature  and  attributes  of  God  and  the  origin  and 
destiny  of  man. 

I  have  taken  pains  to  study  Mrs.  Eddy's  analysis  of  these 
two  stories  of  creation  contained  in  Genesis.  While  Christian 
Science  emphatically  contradicts  the  second  chapter  account 
there  is  an  unequivocal  acceptance  of  the  spiritual  origin  of 
man  as  described  in  the  first  chapter ;  and  an  emphatic  declara- 
tion that  man  is  not  material  but  spiritual ;  that  his  life  is  in 
God.  Christian  Science  pronounces  itself  in  full  accord  with 
the  narative  of  man's  origin  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gene- 
sis.   It  is  not  in  accord,  however,  with  the  account  contained  in 

225 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  second  chapter.  Is  it  for  this  reason  that  the  theologians 
condemn  Christian  Science  as  unscriptural  ?  Is  Christian 
Science  adjudged  to  be  heterodox  because  it  decHnes  to  accept 
as  one  of  the  tenets  of  its  faith  the  materialistic  account  of 
man's  origin  and  destiny  contained  in  the  second  chapter  of 
Genesis.  But  will  the  orthodox  clerics  seriously  affirm  that 
the  second  chapter  is  the  correct  and  the  first  chapter  the  in- 
correct account  of  man's  origin  and  destiny?  Which  horn  of 
this  dilemma  are  they  likely  to  take  in  their  eagerness  to  dis- 
credit Christian  Science?  Will  they  take  the  one  which  dis- 
credits the  God  they  worship?  What  think  you,  members  of 
the  Jury? 


226 


IV. 

THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH. 

THE  Christian  Science  movement  is  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment. It  is  at  war  with  the  senses.  It  is  a  struggle 
"for  the  freedom  of  health,  holiness  and  attainment  of 
heaven."  The  issues  which  Mary  Baker  Eddy  precipitated  may 
be  briefly  summarized  as  follows : 

Is  reliance  to  be  placed  as  heretofore  on  the  drug  system, 
or  are  spiritual  methods  of  healing  to  be  recognized  as  the 
proper  means  to  be  employed  in  case  of  illness? 

Are  material  remedies,  inanimate  matter,  human  person- 
ality, and  hypnotic  suggestion,  or  the  Omnipotent  mind,  the 
Divine  energies  of  Spirit,  to  be  the  curative  agency  through 
which  the  human  race  is  to  find  deliverance  from  its  bondage 
to  sickness  and  disease? 

Is  it  the  so  called  sub-conscious  mind  upon  which  physician, 
clergyman,  or  mental  healer  must  alike  depend  for  the  relief 
or  recovery  of  the  sick,  or  are  the  ravages  of  sin,  sickness  and 
death  to  be  stayed  by  the  Divine  Mind — "the  absolute  Divine 
Principal  of  scientific  being  and  healing,  before  which  sin 
and  disease  lose  their  reality  in  human  consciousness  ?" 

"In  this  revolutionary  period,"  as  Mrs.  Eddy  has  declared, 
"like  the  shepherd-boy  with  his  sling,  woman  goes  forth  to 
battle  with  Goliath."  And  the  odds  apparently  were  as  much 
against  her  as  they  were  against  the  stripling  David  when  he 
accepted  the  challenge  of  the  Philistine  Giant.  Mrs.  Eddy's 
metaphysical  system  of  healing  bodily  ailments  challenged  ma- 
terialistic hypotheses  to  meet  in  final  combat.  The  Science 
which  she  proclaimed  has  had  to  face  the  opposition  of  a 
thoroughly  materialistic  and  skeptical  age.  It  has  encountered 
the  bitter  antagonism  of  a  medical  profession,  thoroughly  ma- 

227 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

terialistic  in  its  professional  work.  The  scientist,  the  philoso- 
opher,  the  theologian,  the  metaphysician,  the  materialist,  con- 
demned Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  and  united  in  efforts  to  ac- 
complish its  overthrow.  The  reactionaries,  recruited  from  the 
old  schools  of  medicine  and  theology  hastened  to  do  battle 
in  defense  of  old  time  dogmas,  creeds,  and  theories.  The 
doctors,  solidly  opposed  to  any  change  in  present  theories  or 
methods  of  medical  treatment,  scouted  the  teachings  of 
Christian  Science  on  the  subject  of  mind  healing  and  stoutly 
denied  the  reality  of  the  cures  effected  by  Christian  Science 
practitioners.  The  clerics  derided  the  doctrines  promulgated 
by  Mrs.  Eddy  and  pronounced  them  unscientific  and  un- 
scriptural. 

Powerful  vested  interests  influenced  by  mercenary  consid- 
erations, vigorously  opposed  the  progress  of  the  movement. 
Secular  and  religious  newspapers,  journals  and  magazines 
threw  the  whole  weight  of  their  influences  against  it.  A  per- 
sistent campaign  of  vilification,  mis-representation,  abuse,  and 
persecution  was  carried  on  in  an  endeavor  to  discredit  Chris- 
tian Science,  its  leader,  and  to  accomplish  its  downfall.  Why? 
The  success  of  the  Christian  Science  movement  meant  a 
revolution  in  medical  practice.  It  foreshadowed  the  doom  of 
medical  procedures.  For  the  drug  system  it  would  substitute 
a  scientific  and  demonstrable  curative  principle  and  a  method 
of  treatment  conducted  on  a  Scriptural  basis  of  Christ-healing. 
Over  and  against  the  insufficiency  of  material  remedies  and 
human  personality  it  would  place  the  fulness  and  sufficiency 
of  spiritual  healing  through  the  power  of  Omnipotent  mind. 
What  wonder,  then  that  the  vested  interests  fought?  They 
heard  their  death  knell. 

On  the  one  side  were  ranged  materia  medica  and  its  material 
methods  of  treating  disease,  including  other  material  or  semi- 
material  means  of  relief  from  physical  ills,  hygiene,  electric- 
ity, osteopathy,  animal  magnetism,   human   personality,   hyp- 

228 


THE  OLD   ORDER  CHANGETH 

notic  suggestion  and  psycho-therapeutic  procedures.  And  who 
was  the  implacable  foe  who  drew  this  army  into  the  field?  A 
woman  without  worldly  influence  or  resources,  who  single- 
handed  undertook  to  wage  a  seemingly  hopeless  battle  against 
the  materiality  of  the  age. 

Humanly  speaking,  the  result  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 
But  Mrs.  Eddy  fearlessly  met  the  challenge. 

As  Goliath  of  old  derided  his  opponent,  so  did  the  present 
age  meet  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  with  scorn  and 
derision,  with  abuse  and  confident  assertion  of  ignominious 
defeat.  It  ridiculed  her  endeavor  to  bring  a  new  healing 
evangel  to  the  world ;  to  create  a  new  religious  order ;  to  found 
a  church  based  on  the  principles  laid  down  in  her  book;  to 
raise  up  a  body  of  Christian  Science  practitioners  who  should 
be  able  to  heal  *'all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of 
disease"  as  in  the  time  of  Jesus. 

Elijah,  **the  prophet  of  flame  and  thunder,"  whom  God  had 
answered  with  fire  from  Heaven,  consuming  the  sacrifice,  the 
altar  upon  which  it  was  laid,  and  the  water  that  filled  the 
trenches,  suffered  a  violent  reaction  of  spirit,  and  lost  his 
courage  when  an  idolatrous  Queen,  who  had  slain  the  prophets 
of  the  Lord,  threatened  to  take  his  life  also.  He  fled  to  the 
wilderness,  where  discouraged  and  physically  exhausted  he 
asked  God  that  he  might  die  because  he  was  not  better  than  his 
fathers,  and  because  the  children  of  Israel  had  forsaken  God, 
torn  down  His  altars  and  slain  His  prophets. 

What  has  enabled  Mrs.  Eddy  to  remain  fearlessly  at  her 
post  of  duty,  despite  the  threats  of  those  opposed  to  her? 
Why  has  she  never  yielded  to  despair  nor  faltered  in  her  al- 
legiance to  the  cause  which  she  espoused?  Let  the  following 
glimpse  of  her  religious  experience,  given  in  Miscellaneous 
Writings,  be  a  sufficient  answer : 

"To  preserve  a  long  course  of  years  still  and  uniform  amid 
the  darkness  of  stomi  and  cloud  and  tempest,  requires  strength 

229 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

from  above — deep  draughts  from  the  fount  of  divine  Love — 
the  spiritual  glow  and  grandeur  of  a  consecrated  life  wherein 
dwelleth  peace,  sacred  and  sincere,  in  trial  or  triumph." 

III. 

Goliath  fell  before  the  sling  of  the  shepherd-boy.  The 
woman  who  went  forth  to  battle  with  the  educational  systems 
of  to-day  has  triumphed.  She  has  achieved  the  seemingly  im- 
possible. The  task  to  which  she  has  devoted  her  life,  the 
demonstration  of  the  Christ-healing,  the  saving  of  the  lame,  the 
deaf,  the  dumb,  the  blind,  the  sick,  the  sensual,  the  sinner, 
the  establishment  of  a  church  that  should  commemorate  Jesus' 
words  and  works, — all  have  been  accomplished  in  this  age  and 
during  her  lifetime. 

All  question  as  to  the  possibility  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy's 
ability  to  establish  a  new  religious  order,  or  successfully 
demonstrate  the  metaphysical  principle  of  healing  as  laid  down 
in  Science  and  Health,  is  removed  by  a  candid  and  unpreju- 
diced consideration  of  the  facts  pertaining  to  the  spread  of 
the  movement  and  the  healing  ministry  conducted  by  Christian 
Science  practitioners. 

Materia  medica  which  now  is  both  empirical  and  atheistic 
in  its  professional  work  must  needs  become  scientific  and 
Christian.  It  must  reach  the  true  source  of  disease,  instead 
of  confining  its  attention  to  the  treatment  of  effects,  registered 
in  the  human  body  through  diseased  thinking.  Material 
remedies  have  had  their  day.  Drugs  are  going  out  of  fashion. 
"The  relief  of  disease,"  says  Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson,  "is  no 
longer  a  matter  of  providing  a  few  magic  powders  or  sooth- 
ing potions.  We  have  got  past  that.  We  no  longer  believe 
that  any  drug  of  itself,  will  cure  any  disease."  As  our  mod- 
ern physician-philosopher  Osier  puts  it,  "He  is  the  best  doctor 
who  knows  the  worthlessness  of  most  drugs."  The  signs  of 
the  time  presage  a  new  order  of  medical  practice  in   which 

230 


THE  OLD   ORDER  CHANGETH 

faith  in  drugs,  or  in  the  doctors  who  administer  them,  will  give 
place  to  faith  in  the  healing  power  of  the  divine  Mind,  and 
Christian  Science  mind-healing  will  become  the  true  specific 
for  human  ailments. 

A  materialistic  age  is  being  succeeded  by  an  age  of  Chris- 
tian idealism.  "The  old  order  changeth,"  and  this  is  quite  as 
true  of  medicine  as  it  is  of  politics  and  religion.  Physiology, 
anatomy  and  hygiene  must  be  studied  from  a  new  standpoint. 
Medical  text  books  on  a  material  basis,  like  the  outlived  dogmas 
and  creeds  embodied  in  the  theological  text  books  of  organized 
Christianity,  must  needs  be  relegated  to  that  oblivion  which  is 
bound  to  overtake  them  sooner  or  later. 

Broad-minded  members  of  the  medical  profession  are  be- 
ginning to  realize  that  the  action  of  the  mind  upon  the  body 
is  more  powerful  than  drugs ;  that  drugs  are  powerless  to  reach 
physical  ailments  which  are  clearly  traceable  to  mental  states 
and  conditions.  There  are  doctors  in  various  cities  who  now 
make  a  practice  of  sending  to  Christian  Science  practitioners 
cases  which  they  cannot  successfully  treat  with  material 
remedies.  In  some  instances  as  many  as  six  such  cases  have  been 
healed  out  of  eight  treated  by  a  single  practitioner !  The  cures 
effected  through  Christian  Science  conclusively  demonstrate 
that  it  is  possible  to  make  sick  people  well  without  recourse  to 
a  doctor's  prescription  or  to  the  shelves  of  the  pharmacist. 

Faith  in  supposedly  curative  objects  through  which  deliv- 
erance from  physical  ills  may  be  secured,  has  been  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  human  race  from  time  immemorial.  Faith  heal- 
ing is  as  old  as  humanity  itself.  So  far  as  the  real  efficiency 
of  the  curative  agencies  employed  is  concerned,  it  is  faith  that 
is  at  the  bottom  of  all  therapeutic  practice.  Hence  we  may 
properly  conclude  that  there  is  nothing  which  can  be  considered 
new,  strange  and  startling  in  the  employment  of  mental  meth- 
ods of  cure. 

The  downfall  of  the  drug  system  does  not  necessarily  mean 

231 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  downfall  of  the  medical  profession  or  that  there  will  be  no 
need  of  medical  practitioners,  at  least  until  we  get  much  nearer 
the  millenial  age  than  we  now  are.  The  relegation  of  the 
stage  coach  to  the  scrap  heap  did  not  mean  the  loss  of  all 
transportation  facilities.  It  simply  meant  the  substitution  of 
other  and  better  modes  of  travel,  such  as  the  trolley,  the  rail- 
road, the  automobile,  and  ere  long,  the  flying  machine. 

Because  Christian  Science  wars  with  physical  science,  the 
old  schools  of  medicine  continue  to  oppose  it  and  to  denounce 
this  great  agency  for  the  advancement  of  human  welfare  as 
a  source  oi  superstition  and  bodily  damage.  Prof.  William 
James,  the  eminent  Harvard  psychologist,  lays  the  blame  on 
a  "scientific  respectability,"  which  keeps  the  doctor's  mind  cure 
sympathies  "tied  up."  A  physician  may  even  believe  in  the 
therapeutic  efficiency  of  prayer,  but  he  is  not  willing  to  accept 
it  as  a  medical  fact,  as  well  established  as  the  physiological  ac- 
tion of  castor  oil,  notwithstanding  that  the  action  of  inanimate 
matter  on  the  human  body  is  in  the  highest  degree  empirical 
instead  of  scientifically  certain.  Nevertheless  to-day  there  is 
hardly  a  city,  village,  or  hamlet,  in  which  are  not  to  be  found 
living  witness  to  the  virtue  and  power  of  Truth. 

To  the  gentle  reader  who  may  think  that  I  am  needlessly 
severe  on  the  medical  profession,  T  can  only  say  that  what  I 
have  written  has  been  under  the  compulsion  of  facts  developed 
in  my  study  of  the  Christian  Science  movement.  If  I  have 
used  what  may  seem  like  strong  language  in  emphasizing  the 
insufficiency  of  material  remedies,  I  have  endeavored  through- 
out to  avoid  the  intrusion  of  the  personal  element.  I  am  free 
to  admit  that  I  have  but  little  respect  for  the  drug  system,  but 
I  have  plenty  of  respect  for  those  members  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession whom  I  have  had  occasion  to  know.  What  I  have 
said,  however,  is  only  the  cooing  of  the  turtle  dove  compared 
with  what  medical  practitioners  themselves  have  had  to  say 
about  medicine  as  a  science.    As  a  matter  of  fact  the  hardest 

232 


THE  OLD   ORDER  CHANGETH 

things  said  against  the  practice  of  medicine  on  the  basis  of 
the  drug  system  came  not  from  those  outside,  but  from  those 
inside  the  profession. 

For  instance,  at  a  recent  conference  of  several  hundred 
eminent  physicians,  held  to  discuss  the  curative  properties  of 
the  new  pitch  blende  discovery — radium,  a  distinguished  au- 
thority in  materia  medica  made  this  statement : 

"There  is  nothing  dawning  upon  the  profession  to-day  with 
more  certainty  than  that  medicine  as  a  curative  agency  is  fail- 
ing. The  most  conservative  practitioners  are  depending  less 
and  less  each  year  upon  drugs  as  a  means  of  combating  dis- 
eases. For  many  hundred  years,  consumption  has  been  treated 
with  drugs  and  nobody  has  been  cured  by  them." 

As  to  the  records  of  medicine,  Dr.  Chapman  of  the  Institute 
and  Practice  of  Physics  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  is 
equally  emphatic : 

*'We  cannot  help  being  disgusted  with  the  multitude  of 
hypotheses  obtruded  upon  us  at  different  times.  Nowhere  is 
the  imagination  displayed  to  a  greater  extent;  and  perhaps  so 
ample  an  exhibition  of  human  invention  might  gratify  our 
vanity,  if  it  were  not  more  than  compensated  by  the  humiliat- 
ing view  of  so  much  absurdity,  contradiction,  and  falsehood. 
To  harmonize  the  contrarieties  of  medical  doctrines  is  indeed 
a  task  as  impracticable  as  to  arrange  the  fleeting  vapours 
around  us,  or  to  reconcile  the  fixed  and  repulsive  antipathies 
of  nature.  Dark  and  perplexed,  our  devious  career  resembles 
the  grouping  of  Homer's  Xyclops  around  his  cave." 

To  this  may  be  joined  this  declaration  by  an  English  phys- 
ician, Mr.  John  Forbes,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Phys- 
icians in  London : 

"No  systematic  or  theoretical  classification  of  diseases  or 
of  any  therapeutic  agents  ever  yet  promulgated,  is  true,  or  any 
think  like  the  truth,  and  none  can  be  adopted  as  a  safe  guid- 
ance in  practice." 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  in  a  lecture  before  the  Harvard 
Medical  School,  years  ago  boldly  asserted  what  few  outsiders 

233 


'ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

would  have  the  courage  to  say,  "I  firmly  believe  that  if  the 
whole  of  materia  medica  could  be  sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  it  would  be  all  the  better  for  mankind,  and  all  the  worse 
for  the  fishes." 

Dr.  Mason  Good,  a  London  professor,  makes  an  even  more 
startling  assertion :  "The  effects  of  medicine  upon  the  human 
system  are  in  the  highest  degree  uncertain ;  except  indeed,  that 
it  has  already  destroyed  more  lives  than  war,  pestilence,  and 
famine,  all  combined." 

The  celebrated  Dr.  Abercrombe,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Physicians,  Edinburgh,  declares,  that  "Medicine  is 
the  science  of  guessing."  Dr.  James  Johnson,  Surgeon  Ex- 
traordinary to  the  King,  is  even  more  emphatic:  "I  declare," 
says  he,  "my  conscientious  opinion  founded  on  long  observa- 
tion and  reflection,  that  if  there  were  not  a  single  physician, 
apothecary,  man-midwife,  chemist,  druggist,  or  drug  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  there  would  be  less  sickness  and  less  mor- 
tality." 

In  arguing  against  a  proposed  medical  bill,  at  a  hearing 
held  before  the  joint  committee  on  Public  Health  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts legislature  in  March,  1898,  Professor  William  Jones, 
of  Harvard  University,  said:  "I  come  to  protest  against  the 
bill  simply  as  a  citizen  who  cares  for  sound  laws  and  for  the 
advance  of  medical  knowledge.  Were  medicine  a  finished 
science,  with  all  practitioners  in  agreement  about  methods  of 
treatment,  a  bill  to  make  it  penal  to  treat  a  patient  without 
having  passed  an  examination  would  be  unobjectionable.  But 
the  present  condition  of  medical  knowledge  is  widely  different 
from  such  a  state.  Both  as  to  principle  and  as  to  prac- 
tice our  knowledge  is  deplorably  imperfect.  The  whole 
face  of  medicine  changes  unexpectedly  from  one  gen- 
eration to  another  in  consequence  of  widening  experience,  and 
as  we  look  back  with  a  mixture  of  amusement  and  horror  at 

234 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH 

the  practice  of  our  grandfathers,  so  we  cannot  be  sure  how 
large  a  portion  of  our  present  practice  will  awaken  similar 
feelings  in  our  posterity." 

Not  less  significant  are  the  remarks  of  Dr.  George  R.  Pat- 
ten, one  of  the  leading  physicians  and  surgeons  of  the  North- 
west, in  an  article  entitled,  "The  Mind  as  a  Dynamic  Force" : 

**It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  medical  theories 
and  remedies  of  a  few  years  ago  have  been  discarded  and  that 
others  have  taken  their  places.  In  fact,  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine is  no  more  an  exact  science  than  the  making  of  pies  or 
doughnuts.     There  are  fads  and  fashions  in  medicine  just  as 

there  are  in  bonnets,  and  they  change  about  as  often 

Mental  influence  alone  may  diminish  or  increase  the  activity  of 
normal  physiological  processes  to  the  extent  of  removing  path- 
ological effects  or  disease.  In  a  general  way,  the  effects  of 
drugs  are  uncertain,  perturbing  and  distinctly  disappointing. 

It  is  a  ludicrous  fact  that  the  average  patient,  when 

paying  out  money,  expects  to  see  some  sign  that  he  is  getting 
'value  received'  in  the  shape  of  bottles  and  pill-boxes;  and  so 
the  unfortunate  doctor  may  have  no  option  but  to  deceive.  As 
time  passes  less  reliance  is  being  placed  on  drugs.  As  knowl- 
edge of  disease  increases,  the  use  of  medicine  decreases.  It  is 
reasonably  assured  that  ultimately  the  physician  will  become, 
not  as  much  the  man  behind  the  pill  as  the  judicious  adviser, 
the  wise  counsellor,  gently  leading  the  sick  'into  green  pas- 
tures, beside  still  waters,'  through  paths  that  lead  onward  to 
recovery,  assisting  nature  at  times,  if  need  be,  with  a  big  bread 
pill." 

"The  old  blind,  implicit  confidence  in  drugs  is  gone,"  says 
Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson.  "The  doctors  no  longer  hold  the 
naive  belief  that  if  they  could  only  find  and  give  the  one  right 
remedy  it  would  'do  the  rest,'  like  some  magic  button  when 
pressed.  Physicians  themselves  admit  that  one  of  the  greatest 
obstacles  to  progress  is  the  use  of  drugs,  one  of  the  greatest 
difficulties  in  sifting  the  helpful  from  the  worthless,  has  been 
and  is  yet  due  to  the  fact  that  about  eighty-five  per  cent,  of  all 
illnesses  get  well  of  their  own  accord,  no  matter  what  may  be 

235 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

or  may  not  be  done  for  them.  The  authority  whom  we  have 
already  quoted  (Dr.  Hutchinson)  is  responsible  for  the  aston- 
ishing admission  made  in  Hampton's  Magazine  recently,  that 
'any  drug  which  is  used  with  sufficient  constancy  and  under 
favorable  circumstances  in  any  disease  will  score  eighty-five 
per  cent,  of  cures,  providing  it  is  not  positively  harmful.'  " 

The  gravest  difficulty  of  the  drug  problem  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  oldest,  most  highly  prized  and  most  universally 
used  drugs  are  unfortunately  the  most  dangerous  and  poison- 
ous, and  it  is  predicted  that  the  biggest  struggle  that  the  com- 
ing doctor  will  have  over  the  drug  system,  will  be  to  break  the 
deadly  grip  which  they  have  upon  the  confidence  and  the  affec- 
tions both  of  the  profession  and  the  public.  That  opium  and 
alcohol  form  the  backbone  of  the  patent  medicine  business, 
is  so  well  within  the  truth,  that  the  assertion  is  freely  made  by 
medical  practitioners  that  if  these  were  taken  away  the  busi- 
ness would  collapse  in  forty-eight  hours. 

What  then  do  the  signs  of  the  time  presage?  As  I  read 
their  augury  and  seek  to  interpret  the  significance  of  the  fore- 
going facts  and  considerations,  I  think  that  I  am  not  wide  of 
the  mark  in  reaching  the  following  conclusion,  viz.:  Before 
the  twentieth  century  is  half  over,  there  will  be  an  almost  com- 
plete loss  of  confidence  in  the  healing  efficacy  of  drugs.  The 
indications  are  not  wanting  that  such  a  change  of  attitude  on 
the  part  of  multitudes  of  intelligent  men  and  women  is  already 
taking  place?  What  therapeutic  system  will  take  its  place? 
Does  not  the  progress  of  the  Christian  Science  mind 
healing  movement  clearly  indicate  that  within  the  next  ten 
years  this  system  will  be  generally  accepted  as  the  most 
efficacious  system  of  cure  and  will  be  generally  and  success- 
fully practiced?  This  does  not  mean  that  the  doctors  will 
have  to  go  out  of  business.  It  means  that  in  sheer  self-preser- 
vation the  present  systems  of  treating  disease  on  a  drug  basis 
will  be  abandoned  for  methods  of  mental  treatment,  and  that 

236 


THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH 

an  increasing  proportion  of  the  medical  profession  will  be- 
come Christian  Science  practitioners.  As  for  drugs  the  time 
is  swiftly  approaching  when  the  world  will  firmly  agree  with 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  in  his  conclusion  that  it  were  better 
for  mankind  if  the  whole  materia  medica  were  sunk  to  the 
bottom  of  the  sea. 


237 


Part  4 


''Give  me,  O  God,  to  sing  this  thought. 

Belief  in  plan  of  Thee,  enclosed  in  Time  and  Space, 

Health,  Peace,  Salvation  universal. 

Is  it  a  dream? 

Nay,  but  the  lack  of  it  a  dream. 

And  failing  it,  life's  love  and  zvealth  a  dream, 

And  all  the  world  a  dream." 

—Walt  Whitman. 


240 


ORGANIZED  CHRISTIANITY. 
Some  Facts  and  Considerations. 

IT  is  fast  becoming  evident  that  there  is  no  finality  about  the 
Christian  Church  as  a  permanent  organism  in  society, 
at  least,  so  far  as  the  present  ecclesiastical  systems  are  to  be 
taken  as  its  exponent.  The  modern  institutional  church  is 
many  leagues  removed  from  the  pure  Christianity  of  the  New 
Testament  type,  to  which  I  have  already  briefly  alluded.  The 
main  things  with  which  it  has  concerned  itself,  those  functions 
which  it  has  voluntarily  assumed,  every  enlightened  municipal- 
ity is  now  prosecuting  with  all  the  force  and  efficiency  of 
municipal  and  state  machinery.  Organized  Christianity  will, 
therefore,  shortly  cease  to  have  any  raison  d'etre  so  far  as  its 
various  social,  reforming,  ameliorating,  philanthropic  agencies 
are  concerned. 

How  stands  the  Church  to-day?  And  by  the  Church  I  do 
not  mean  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  These  are  not  always 
synonymous  terms.  I  candidly  believe  there  is  more  honesty, 
truth  and  charity,  more  real  religious  power  in  the  world  to- 
day than  ever  before,  but  it  is  not  all  in  the  church  and  does 
not  find  expression  in  the  ecclesiastical  language  of  the  past. 
By  the  Church,  I  mean  organized  Christianity  as  a  great  sac- 
erdotal corporation.  What  we  co-ordinate  under  this  term  is 
an  aggegation  of  institutions  and  usages  around  the  central 
idea  of  the  Christian  faith.  As  it  stands  to-day  it  represents 
an  assimilation  to  the  world,  in  which  the  pure  Christianity 

241 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

of  Jesus  Christ  has  come  to  live,  which  has  been  at  the  ex- 
pense of  its  higher  ethical  and  finer  spiritual  elements  and  its 
ministry  to  the  physical  needs  of  mankind.  The  Christianity 
that  is  merely  of  sects,  the  pulpit  and  fashionable  society,  car- 
ries within  its  organism  the  seeds  of  decay  and  dissolution. 

This  age  rightly  demands  that  organized  Christianity  shall 
realize  the  unity  of  classes  and  peoples,  the  common  faith  and 
hope  and  charity,  its  obedience  towards  God  and  duty  towards 
men  which  Christ  symbolized.  To  the  extent  which  it  has 
failed  to  do  this  it  is  unchristian  and  unfaithful  to  the  trust 
committed  to  it. 

Organized  Christianity  in  its  jealous  concern  for  the  honor 
and  permanency  of  the  priestly  office  has  failed  to  apply  the 
sovereignty  of  Christ  as  the  sole  institution  of  faith  and  wor- 
ship; it  has  failed  to  show  how  the  Christian  idea  can  fulfil 
the  ideal  of  humanity. 

Jesus  Christ  completely  reversed  the  belief  that  God's  at- 
titude towards  His  children  needs  or  could  be  changed  by  the 
offering  of  gifts  and  sacrifices.  But  this  old  belief  still  sur- 
vives in  those  elaborate  dogmas  and  institutions,  sacrificial  and 
ceremonial,  which  are  the  proudest  work  of  man  and  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  organized  Christianity  as  it  exists 
to-day. 

One  of  the  most  recent  and  the  most  scathing  indictments 
of  the  Church  has  been  drawn  by  a  Baptist  minister,  a  pro- 
fessor in  the  Chicago  University,  George  Burnham  Foster,  and 
may  be  found  in  a  recent  volume  from  his  pen  entitled  *'The 
Function  of  Religion."  He  pictures  the  church  as  on  the 
wrong  track  and  questions  whether  it  is  not  like  an  old  tree 
whose  fruit-bearing  days  are  over.  The  difficulties  of  its 
situation  are  enlarged  upon,  such  as  the  estrangement  of  the 
masses  and  the  emergence  of  triumphant  competitors,  as  bear- 
ers of  the  ideal  interests  of  humanity  in  which  the  church  form- 
erly had  a  monopoly.  Among  these  competitors  of  the  church  in 

242 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

its  educational  and  charitable  work  are  the  State  and  Munici- 
palities who  are  assuming  this  work  with  increasing  intelligence 
and  humanity. 

In  these  latter  years  a  number  of  special  agencies  have 
emerged  whose  natural  and  specific  function  is  to  care  for 
destitution  and  for  politics  and  for  education  and  morals  as 
well.  Once  the  church  founded  all  manner  of  educational  in- 
stitutions, whereas  now,  the  state  and  private  capital  build 
schools  and  colleges.  The  church,  according  to  Professor 
Foster,  is  not  only  dogging  the  footsteps  of  science  and  block- 
ing its  every  advance,  but  is  lacking  in  its  search  for  truth. 
He  charges  it  with  love  of  dogma,  with  pride  rather  than  serv- 
ice, with  clericism  rather  than  humanism,  and  declares  that  it 
has  always  been  on  the  reactionary  side  of  every  question  and 
by  virtue  of  its  usurpation  and  maladministration,  religion  is 
perverted  and  the  free  and  normal  development  of  hum^n 
culture  is  menaced. 

The  church  is  represented  as  a  dabbler  in  politics,  charity, 
and  medicine,  in  which  fact  he  discerns  the  proof  of  a  be- 
wildered and  desperate  confusion  as  to  its  true  functions.  He 
describes  it  as  hobbling  along  behind  all  the  progress  of  life, 
regarding  it  with  envious  and  jealous  eyes,  because  every  new 
advance  would  make  her  by  so  much  superfluous,  thus  limiting 
her  field  of  labor  or  imposing  upon  her  the  humiliating  neces- 
sity of  being  a  busy  body  and  interloper  on  regions  now  nor- 
mally occupied  by  other  institutions. 

"It  is  whispered  round,"  says  this  militant  critic,  "that  the 
Church  in  regions  of  reform  and  charity  and  education  and 
politics  and  medicine  is  something  of  a  bungler  and  intruder 
practicing  squatter  sovereignty  in  territories  in  which  she  has 
no  constitutional  right." 

Once  upon  a  time  the  church  disciplined  and  restored  trans- 
gressors. Now  the  State  does  it.  Not  so  long  ago  the  church 
taught  its  members  to  forego  amusements  as  a  moral  peril, 

243 


'ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

now,  impelled  by  an  instinct  of  self-preservation,  it  seeks  to 
hold  the  patronage  of  the  people  by  competing  with  outside 
purveyors  of  amusement. 

Nor  is  Dr.  Foster  content  with  describing  the  difficulties 
of  its  ecclesiastical  situation.  This  fiery  critic  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  even  denounce  the  church  as  a  "whited  sepulchure,  full 
of  dead  men's  bones,  a  place  where  death  is  treated  as  if  it 
were  life,  and  life  as  if  it  were  death." 

The  fact  that  the  people  do  not  support  the  church  or  at- 
tend its  services,  is,  in  his  view,  not  because  of  indifference  to 
ideals,  but  because  other  institutions  better  express  and  pro- 
mote these  ideals. 

"The  spiritual  values  of  the  people,"  he  asserts,  "are  more 
effectually  conserved  and  nurtured  by  other  agencies  than  the 
church." 

II. 

Dr.  Fairbairn,  one  of  the  ablest  of  English  theologians,  re- 
gards Organized  Christianity  as  fundamentally  wrong  in  its 
theory  of  human  nature.  He  characterizes  it  as  an  attempt  to 
confine  Divine  influences  to  artificial  and  ordained  channels, 
and  thereby  to  make  the  common  life  of  man  either  vacant  of 
God  or  alien  to  Him. 

He  declares  that  the  church  doubts  the  presence  of  God  in 
humanity ;  limits  His  grace  to  a  constituted  church ;  doubts  the 
sanity  of  the  human  reason,  or  its  affinity  with  its  Maker,  and 
regards  it  as  ever  tending  away  from  Him,  its  bent  by  nature 
being  from  God  rather  than  to  God ;  asserts  that  it  is  possessed 
with  a  great  fear  that  man  freed  from  the  authority  and  guid- 
ing care  of  an  organized  and  apostolic  church  would  infallibly 
break  away  from  the  control  of  His  law  and  truth,  and  de- 
clares that  such  a  theory  makes  mere  heathens  of  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  devoted  spirits  that  have  advanced  true  re- 
ligion and  promoted  the  philanthropies  of  modern  times.     "It 

244 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

may  be  good  ecclesiasticism,"  remarks  Dr.  Fairbairn,  "but  it 
is  bad  Christianity." 

And  the  organized  society,  as  Dr.  Fairbairn  well  remarks, 
which  seeks  to  enforce  respect  for  its  orders,  observance  of 
its  ritual,  participation  in  its  worship,  submission  to  its  author- 
ity, by  invoking  the  terrors  of  the  world  to  come,  "may  be  a 
church,  but  it  is  not  a  reHgion." 

"Organized  Christianity,"  Dr.  Fairbairn  goes  on  to  say,  "is 
confronted  with  a  belligerent  and  most  pronounced  unbelief, 
which  is  reflected  in  a  disheartening  loss  in  church  attendance." 

Missionary  zeal  fails  to  keep  pace  with  the  increase  of  the 
population  and  its  aggregation  in  large  towns;  the  church  is 
so  little  penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  so  dominated 
by  the  spirit  of  worldliness,  that  it  is  making  heathens  faster 
than  it  has  been  able  to  make  Christians." 

Proofs  of  historical  continuity  and  Catholicity  are  but  sad 
playthings  for  the  ingenious  intellect,  when  urged  in  behalf  of 
churches  confronted  by  such  invisible  evidences  of  failure,  as 
are  the  miseries,  the  sins,  the  poverty  and  want,  the  heathen- 
isms and  civilized  savageries  of  to-day. 

"The  distance  of  the  churches  from  the  religion  of  Christ," 
continues  Dr.  Fairbairn,  "is  measured  not  so  much  by  the 
amount  of  unbelief,  both  of  the  critical  and  uncritical  order; 
it  is  not  simply  the  relatively  small  number  of  church-goers, 
nor  the  failure  of  missionary  zeal  to  keep  pace  with  the  in- 
crease in  population  and  its  aggregation  in  large  towns ;  nor  is 
this  distance  to  be  measured  by  the  number  and  quality  of  the 
bodies  that  describe  themselves  as  churches  and  other  no  less 
honorable  bodies  as  sects.  Neither  is  it  the  decline  in  the 
churches  of  the  love  that  seeks  to  emulate,  and  the  growth  of 
the  envy  that  love  to  disparage,  that  emphasize  the  distance 
from  the  religion  of  Christ." 

It  is  something  more  radical  than  any  one  of  these  or  even 
air  of  them,  viz. :  the  small  degree  in  which  the  Christian  ideal 
has  been  and  is  the  constitutive  and  regulative  idea  of  the 
churches  and  of  society. 

The  poor  have  a  right  to  expect  help  from  religion,  in  be- 

245 


:4LTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

lieving  that  its  mission  was  to  lift  them  out  of  the  poverty, 
to  make  an  end  to  charities,  that  are  the  luxuries  of  the  rich 
and  the  miseries  of  the  poor,  and  to  create  a  society,  a  free 
and  ordered  brotherhood,  where  freedom,  justice  and  plenty 
were  to  reign. 

"The  greed,  the  selfishness,  the  sheer  individuaHsm  and 
mammon  worship  which  excites  reprobation ;  the  heartless  and 
contented  acquiescence  of  the  church  in  conditions  which  de- 
base the  soul  of  the  people  and  erect  the  extravagant  luxury 
of  the  few  and  the  grinding  poverty  of  the  many,"  these,  as 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has  so  forcibly  observed,  are  among  the 
things  which  Christ  would  most  strongly  denounce  if  he  were 
to  come  again  among  us.  It  recalls  the  parable  of  the  rich 
man  and  Lazarus  in  which  Jesus  said  of  the  former  "he 
lifted  up  his  eyes  in  Hell,  being  in  torment."  This  teaching 
of  the  great  Nazarene  prophet  is  strikingly  similar  to  that  of 
Gautama,  the  Buddhi,  who  taught  that  "to  be  wealthy,  while 
so  many  thousands  are  perishing  for  want  of  bare  necessities 
is  the  blackest  of  crimes." 

The  churches  of  to-day  are  what  Wendell  Phillips  called 
them,  "The  great  apologies  for  every  powerful  wrong."  If 
we  look  for  the  most  powerful  defenders  of  the  predatory 
rich  do  we  not  find  them  in  prominent  churchmen  like  Chan- 
cellor Day  and  Dr.  McArthur? 

Elisee  Reclus,  an  eminent  French  scholar,  draws  this  pic- 
ture of  our  vaunted  Christian  civilization,  as  related  to  city 
life,  which  he  regards  as  merely  a  semi-civilization  because 
only  a  majority  enjoy  its  benefits: 

"The  slums  of  our  city  are  more  repulsive  than  anything 
else  to  be  found  among  the  so-called  savage  tribes.  Hundreds 
of  thousands,  millions  probably,  beg  bread  at  the  doors  of 
churches  and  barracks.  Accidents,  diseases,  deformities  and 
congenital  defects  of  every  sort,  complicated  more  often  than 
not  by  the  random  application  of  bogus  remedies,  aggravated 

246 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

by  poverty,  by  the  lack  of  indispensable  care,  by  the  absence  of 
gaiety  and  of  hope,  produce  decrepitude  long  before  the  nor- 
mal period  of  old  age.  The  success  of  some  involves  the  fail- 
ure of  others  in  contemporaneous  society  and  in  all  the  coun- 
tries called  civilized.  The  moral  abyss  between  the  manner 
of  life  of  the  privileged  and  of  the  pariahs  has  widened.  The 
unfortunate  have  become  more  unfortunate,  because  their 
physical  sufferings  have  been  irrtated  by  hatred  and  envy  and 
because  their  destitution  has  been  aggravated  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  forced  abstinences." 

Said  Frank  Moss,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  reform  move- 
ment in  New  York  City,  to  a  group  of  clergymen : 

**I  call  you  to  witness,  friends !  Has  the  Christian  Church, 
has  the  Hebrew  Church,  has  any  church,  in  these  days  of  vice, 
in  these  days  of  crime  that  have  cursed  the  city,  and  from 
which  we  hope  we  have  been  delivered,  in  these  days  of  shame 
and  degradation — has  any  church  raised  its  voice  of  protest? 
Has  any  adequate  rallying  cry  gone  out  from  the  churches? 
When  the  time  came  to  fight  the  organized  corruption  that  had 
seized  the  governmental  powers  and  stolen  young  men  and 
women  right  from  the  very  doors  of  the  church;  when  the 
time  came  for  a  fight  we  had  to  turn  to  politicians  to  organize 
and  lead  the  fight.    The  church  was  practically  dumb." 

And  has  the  church  been  any  more  outspoken  during  the 
work  of  the  State  and  the  Municipality  in  Tenement  House 
Reform ;  a  reform  led  by  a  Tenement  Commission  and  made 
effective  by  means  of  legal  enactments,  designed  to  remedy 
the  shocking  conditions  in  the  dirty  slums  and  dark  unsanitary 
tenements  of  our  great  city.  This  very  law  designed  to  im- 
prove these  conditions ;  to  curb  the  rapacity  and  unscrupulous- 
ness  of  the  contractors  and  owners  of  tenement  property  and 
to  check  the  exploitation  of  the  poorer  classes  of  the  city  for 
purposes  of  greed,  encountered  as  its  opposers  property  owners 
who  profess  to  be  Christian  and  property  owning  clerical  cor- 
porations, whose  stately  religious  services  on  Sunday  present 
the  saddest  possible  contrast  to  the  life  of  the  poor  and  de- 

247 


'ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

graded  denizens  of  their  tenement  properties,  living  under  con- 
ditions that  are  a  disgrace  to  our  Christian  civilization. 

Jesus,  who  was  embodied  Compassion,  Beneficence  and 
Truth,  wrought  for  the  redemption  of  man.  He  entered  into 
our  common  lot.  He  was  touched  with  the  evils  which  the 
common  people  endured.  He  went  in  among  the  needy  and 
the  guilty.  He  loved  to  cure  disease  and  to  create  a  spirit 
which  should  banish  poverty.  Has  Organized  Christianity  fol- 
lowed His  example?    Is  it  Christian  in  the  Christ  way? 

Speaking  of  religious  conditions  in  England  which  apply 
equally  well  to  the  Ecclesiastical  situation  in  this  country,  Dr. 
Fairbairn  says: 

"We  have  in  our  midst  outcast  masses,  multitudes  who 
have  lapsed  into  something  worse  than  heathenism,  into  merest 
savagery,  and  have  done  so,  not  through  lack  of  religious 
agencies,  but  simply  through  lack  of  religion,  the  absence  or 
inaction  of  the  higher  Christian  ideals  in  the  mind,  heart  and 
conscience,  of  the  body  politic. 

"Of  course  the  church  can  reckon  up  the  sums  spent  on 
building  churches,  on  its  endowments  and  stipends,  its  found- 
ing and  maintaining  of  religious  institutions,  hospitals,  homes, 
etc.,  on  its  prosecution  of  missionary  enterprise  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  can  appeal  to  the  multitudes  of  beneficient  agencies 
and  benevolent  institutions  worked  by  the  church,  and  may 
argue  that  these  sums  are  so  immense,  as  to  prove  the  spirit 
of  faith  to  be  a  living  and  zealous  spirit,  devoted  and  self- 
sacrificing. 

"But  the  destitution,  depravity,  utter  and  shamless  godli- 
ness which  exists  in  spite  of  all  expenditures  and  efforts  of 
the  church.    What  do  these  evils  mean? 

"Organized  Christianity  to  the  degree  that  they  do  exist 
is  not  only  imperfectly  Christian,  but  really  un-Christian ;  so 
far  as  they  are  preventable,  the  church  has  been  forgetful  of 
its  highest  obligation,  or  unequal  to  their  performance." 

Edwin  Markham,  in  a  recent  poem  entitled  "The  New  Cen- 
tury," has  this  to  say  touching  the  present-day  conditions  of 
the  poorer  classes  in  our  cities: 

248 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

"Man  has  put  harness  on  Leviathan 
And  hooks  in  his  incorrigible  Jaws, 
And  yet  the  perils  of  the  street  remain, 
Out  of  the  whirlwind  of  the  cities  rise, 
Lean  Hunger  and  the  Worm  of  Misery, 
The  heart-break  and  the  cry  of  mortal  tears." 

And  he  draws  still  another  picture : 

"When  I  hear  on  our  streets,  the  tragic  stories  of  our 
sweat  shops,  of  our  child  slaves,  together  with  the  wanton 
riot  of  luxury,  in  the  money  madness  of  our  day — I  sometimes 
feel  as  Shelley  did,  when  with  Leigh  Hunt,  he  stood  one  night 
on  London  Bridge.  With  a  quick  gesture  Shelly  pointed  to 
the  great  city,  exclaiming :    'Hunt,  Hell  is  what  London  is.' " 

And  the  Rev.  Charles  Stilzle,  who  is  leading  a  movement 
designed  to  bring  workingmen  and  the  church  into  closer 
touch,  utters  these  unutterably  saddening  words,  concerning 
the  poor  thousands  who  in  blank  despair  turn  from  a  Chris- 
tianity, from  which  they  have  a  right  to  expect  relief  from 
grinding  oppression  and  the  well-nigh  intolerable  conditions 
which  obtain  in  the  sweat  shops  and  factories  of  our  cities 
where  they  toil  in  hopeless  drudgery,  "chained  to  the  wheel 
of  labor  by  the  fierce  necessity  for  bread :" 

"To  hold  the  cities,"  says  Dr.  Stilzle,  "is  to  hold  the  Nation, 
and  the  church  will  keep  on  losing  ground  in  the  cities  unless 
it  sits  down  to  honest  study  of  these  problems.  More  danger- 
ous than  any  opposing  religious  system  is  the  churches'  appar- 
ent failure  to  recognize  the  influence  of  the  social  and  physical 
conditions  which  affect  many  of  those  whom  we  are  seeking 
to  win.  These  conditions  have  more  to  do  with  their  aliena- 
tion from  the  church  than  is  generally  supposed.  The  dirty 
slum,  the  dark  tenement,  the  unsanitary  factory,  the  long"  hours 
of  work,  the  lack  of  a  living  wage,  the  back-breaking  labor, 
the  want  of  money  to  pay  doctors  in  time  of  sickness,  the 
poor  and  insufficient  food,  the  lack  of  leisure — all  these  weigh 
down  the  hearts  of  thousands  and  thousands  in  our  great 
cities." 

"To  such  men  and  women,  what  does  it  matter  whether 

249 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  doors  of  the  church  are  opened  or  closed?  What  do  they 
care  for  flowery  sermons  or  fine  orations?  What  meaning 
can  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  have 
to  them?  They  ask,  'Where  is  God?'  and  they  say,  'What 
does  man  care  ?'  The  hell  in  the  future  does  not  interest  them. 
Their  hell  is  here  and  now." 

In  an  age  when  it  can  be  said  of  a  large  part  of  Chris- 
tian society,  "every  one  loveth  gifts  and  followeth  after  re- 
wards," and  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  is  not  heard  even  at  the 
Temple  altars,  the  denunciations  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  have 
lost  none  of  their  force: 

"To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  .  .  . 

.  .  who  hath  required  this  at  your  hands Bring  no 

more  vain  oblations;  incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me  .  .  . 
.  .  Your  new  moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth ; 

they  are  a  trouble  unto  me ;  I  am  weary  to  bear  them 

When  ye  make  many  prayers  I  will  not  hear.  Your  hands 
are  full  of  blood.  Wash  you,  make  you  clean;  put  away  the 
evil  doings  from  before  mine  eyes;  cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to 
do  well;  seek  justice,  set  right  the  oppressor,  relieve  the  op- 
pressed." 

III. 

Has  the  Christian  world  as  represented  by  the  five  great 
Christian  nations,  England,  Germany,  Russia,  France  and  the 
United  States,  fulfilled  the  vision  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  of  that 
peaceful  reign  when  the  nations  of  the  earth 

"shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares,  and  the  spears  into 
pruning  hooks;  when  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against 
nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  (Isaiah  2-4). 

On  the  contrary,  they  have  much  more  nearly  fulfilled  the 
vision  of  the  militant  prophet  Joel : 

"Prepare  war,  wake  up  the  mighty  men,  let  all  the  men 
of  war  draw  near;  let  them  come  up;  beat  your  plowshares 
into  swords,  and  your  pruning  hooks  into  spears."  (Joel 
3-10)  • 

250 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

Were  Jesus  Christ  to  appear  as  man  among  men,  would 
he  find  that  Christianity  had  replaced  suspicion  and  force  with 
reason  and  law;  that  the  world's  wealth  was  being  used  for 
productive,  humane  and  enlightened  purposes?  On  the  cont 
trary,  would  he  not  find  the  greater  part  of  it  squandered  on 
ruinous  and  provocative  preparations  for  war,  preparations 
which  involve  an.  extravagant  and  wasteful  expenditure  of 
public  money  in  the  competitive  construction  of  needless  and 
useless  armaments,  and  impose  unnecessary  burdens  of  taxation 
that  threaten  to  ultimately  impoverish  and  exhaust  the  re- 
sources of  the  people,  work  ruin  to  the  working  men,  desolation 
in  many  homes  and  the  degradation  of  the  Christianity  which 
He  came  to  establish  upon  earth  ? 

The  cost  of  armed  peace,  or  of:  maintaining  what  is;  in 
reality  only  a  truce  among  nations,  has  grown  to  enormous 
proportions.  European  nations  are  said  to  have  been  looking 
to  the  United  States  to  lead  them  in  the  arrest  of  war  ex*- 
penditures.  But  what  is  the  spectacle  which  this  country 
affords?  Instead  of  curtailing  its  outlays  for  war  preparations 
and  thus  throwing  its  moral  influence  in  the  right  direction:, 
it  has  increased  its  expenditures  at  such  a  tremendous  rate,  as 
to  outdo  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  For  the  period  of 
1 890- 1 898  the  average  yearly  rate  of  expenditure  for  the 
army  and  navy  was  $51,000,000.  The  statistics  show  that  the 
average  yearly  rate  for  the  period  of  1902- 1 910  was  $185,400,- 
000,  an  increase  of  360  per  cent. 

In  eight  years  the  American  people  have  had  to  pay  the 
enormous  sum  of  $1,072,000,000  for  war  purposes,  an  amount 
which  exceeds  the  entire  budget  of  the  United  States  for  1910, 
and  is  twice  as  much  as  the  highest  estimate  of  carrying  out 
the  deep  water  way  projects  of  the  country. 

The  expenditures  of  the  five  leading  nations  in  Christens 
dom  for  the  past  fiscal  year,  on  a  peace  basis  reaches  the  tre- 
mendous and  appalling  total  of  $1,190,383,177.    Nor  is  that  all 

251 


'ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

— Christian  nations  are  already  staggering  under  a  load  of 
debt  which  amounts  to  $34,000,000,000,  on  which  the  interest 
alone  is  nearly  $1,000,000,000  annually.  This  indebtedness  has 
been  almost  wholly  incurred  by  outlays  for  war  purposes. 
What  the  expenditures  would  be  in  case  of  a  war  in  these  days 
between  any  two  or  three  of  these  nations  staggers  the  imagi- 
nation. It  would  create  a  well-nigh  intolerable  burden  of  in- 
debtedness and  impose  years  of  the  most  crushing,  unnecessary 
and  ruinous  taxation.  The  war  with  the  Boers  of  South 
Africa  cost  England  $1,000,000,000.  What  would  a  war  be- 
tween England  and  Germany  cost  these  two  great  nations? 

Already  the  existing  social  order  is  in  grave  danger.  Class 
antagonism;  the  growth  of  socialism;  the  menace  of  revolu- 
tionary doctrines  which  are  being  spread  throughout  the 
world;  the  strife  between  capital  and  labor;  the  grinding  taxa- 
tion of  the  poorer  classes;  the  enhanced  cost  of  living,  the 
growth  of  the  privileged  classes,  the  revolt  against  the  em- 
ployment of  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  resources  of  the  na- 
tions in  the  maintenance  of  instrumentalities  of  destruction; 
these  all  seriously  threaten  the  stability  of  national  existence 
and  presage  the  overthrow  of  governmental  rule. 

Were  the  vast  sums  now  expended  in  military  preparations 
used  for  improving  and  conserving  national  resources  in  the 
interest  of  the  common  people,  were  it  expended  in  bettering 
educational  methods,  in  caring  for  the  aged  and  the  infirm, 
relieving  congested  population  and  in  other  work  for  the  gen- 
eral benefit  of  mankind,  the  problems  connected  with  the  social 
and  economic  advancement  of  the  working  class  could  be  easily 
solved. 

If  the  477,000,000  nominal  Christians  who  make  up  the 
membership  and  following  of  Christendom,  as  it  exists  to-day, 
were  to  compose  their  sectional  differences;  were  they  bound 
together  in  the  bonds  of  a  true  Christian  unity,  instead  of  be- 
ing separated  into  a  multitude  of  more  or  less  discordant  sects ; 

252 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

were  they  pledged  to  the  promotion  of  that  peace  among  men 
which  the  founder  of  Christianity  came  to  bring  to  this  world, 
can  there  be  any  doubt  that  a  public  sentiment  would  be 
created  so  powerful  as  speedily  to  put  an  end  to  this  extrava- 
gant, useless,  ruinous,  and  worse  than  criminal  expenditure 
for  maintaining  an  armed  peace  among  so  called  Christian 
nations  ? 

Why  go  to  war?  Why  talk  of  it  as  an  "instrument  of 
policy?"  Why  must  the  war-dogs  bay  so  vigorously?  Why 
must  there  be  conquest  at  the  cost  of  a  life  and  death  struggle 
between  the  combatants  ?  Why  should  there  be  the  outpouring 
of  a  nation's  blood  and  treasure  in  frenzied  conflict?  Why 
must  hate  and  passion,  mad  brutality  and  bloody  carnage  run 
riot  ?  Is  that  the  price  great  civilized  Christian  nations — Chris- 
tian in  name  at  least — must  pay  for  national  existence  and  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  prosperity  ?  War  is  neither  Christian, 
nor  wise,  nor  profitable.  To  violently  and  brutally  disturb 
through  armed  conflict,  the  world's  peace  and  the  common 
life,  the  common  interest,  the  common  trade  of  civilized  na- 
tions, finds  no  sanction  in  true  statesmanship  or  prudent  re- 
gard for  the  well  being  of  the  citizen  and  the  state. 

But  why  talk  of  an  utter  lack  of  preparedness  for  war, 
when  the  truth  is  vast  armaments  are  wholly  unnecessary  in 
our  day,  and  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  prevent  war.  If  con- 
sistently carried  out  by  the  great  nations  there  can  be  but  one 
conclusion,  the  cost  of  armaments  and  the  maintenance  of 
nations  on  a  war  footing  will  become  prohibitive,  or  else  bank- 
rupt the  civilized  world.  Instead  of  being  a  guarantee  of 
peace,  great  armaments  are  a  continual  menace  to  peace. 

In  the  last  ten  years  we  have  expended  in  this  country,  in 
preparations  for  war  the  sum  of  $2,192,036,585.20.  What 
have  we  accomplished  by  this  vast  expenditure?  Official  re- 
ports tell  us  that  any  large  nation  in  Europe  or  in  the  Orient 

253 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

could  successfully  invade  America,  destroy  the  cities  on  the 
coast  and  paralyze  our  commerce. 

If  with  such  an  expenditure  we  are  in  such  a  helpless  con- 
dition, as  the  advocates  of  militarism  would  have  us  believe, 
how  much  must  the  country  expend  to  render  ourselves  secure 
against  the  most  remote  contingencies  which  might  arise  in 
case  of  war  with  a  first-class  nation?  Yet  in  spite  of  all  this 
enormous  outlay  for  war  preparations,  equal  to  y2  per  cent,  of 
the  nation's  yearly  income,  if  we  include  the  pension  list,  the 
eminent  men  whom  we  have  chosen  to  preside  over  the  mighty 
question  of  national  defense,  distincdy  and  emphatically  de- 
clare that  we  are  alarmingly  unprepared  for  attack  by  any  for- 
eign power.  Does  this  mean  that  the  other  28  per  cent,  of  our 
annual  income  must  go  in  the  same  direction  ? 

The  fearful  waste  of  accumulated  capital  involved  in  war 
and  the  increasingburden  of  taxation  involved  in  being  pre- 
pared for  war,  is  becoming  a  most  practical  argument  against 
war,  since  it  is  fast  breaking  down  the  ability  of  nations  to 
carry  the  double  burden. 

One  thing  is  certain:  there  must  be  the  growth  of  a  truly 
international  opinion  which  will  make  war  a  practical  impossi- 
bility or  else  the  increasing  expenditures  for  war  preparations 
will  reach  the  breaking  point  and  wars  will  not  be  carried  on 
between  nations  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  nations  them- 
selves have  become  bankrupt  and  are  no  longer  able  to  wage 
successful  warfare. 

Is  organized — or  shall  we  say  disorganized — Christianity 
deserving  of  the  name  of  Christian  so  long  as  this  horrible 
spectre  of  militarism  overshadows  all  the  Christian  countries 
of  the  world;  so  long  as  the  emphasis  is  laid  upon  shot  and 
shell  instead  of  good  will;  upon  force  instead  of  love;  upon 
brutal  struggle  for  national  supremacy  instead  of  brotherhood; 
upon  destruction  instead  of  justice?  Is  this  a  Christian  age 
in  any  true  sense  when  the  finer  things  of  life,  when  science, 

254 


-HE 


CHRISTIANITY 


culture  ideals  and  all  happy  and  joyous  phases  of  human  ex- 
perience are  dominated  by  a  rampant  war  spirit  which  keeps 
alive  hatred,  strife  and  jealousies  between  nations  and  lays 
intolerable  burdens  upon  peoples  who  have  no  enemies  in  the 
world  ? 

''Think  of  so-called  Christian  nations,"  says  the  Christian 
Work  and  Evangelist,  "going  on  to-day  piling  up  huge  warships 
by  the  half  dozen  or  more  a  year,  with  which  to  destroy  each 
other.  What  most  impresses  a  Japanese  or  Chinese  in  his  tour 
through  Christian  Europe  as  the  most  conspicuous  product  of 
our  Christianity?  Big  guns.  And  all  this  the  church  could 
stop  immediately  were  it  Christian." 

But  why  this  mad  race  for  military  and  naval  supremacy 
when  there  is  no  cloud  on  the  sky  of  the  world's  international 
relations;  when  international  trade  and  commerce  is  reaching 
out  to  all  parts  of  the  globe  and  self-interest  is  fast  becoming 
the  surest  guarantee  against  war  between  nations.  Already 
the  world's  annual  commerce  is  measured  by  the  enormous 
total  of  twenty-eight  billion  ($28,000,000,000)  dollars,  and 
there  is  scarce  a  limit  to  its  expansion.  In  the  face  of  this 
marvellous  traffic  between  great  industrial  and  commercial 
empires,  who  know  no  national  boundaries  and  are  rapidly 
binding  peoples  arid  nations  together  with  chains  of  gold, 
belligerency  between  nations  becomes  suicidal. 

Why  has  organized  Christianity  after  these  nineteen  cen- 
turies of  professed  allegiance  to  its  founder,  the  "Prince  of 
Peace,"  and  whose  followers  are  pledged  to  extend  his  reign 
over  all  the  world,  so  little  influence  in  staying  this  mad  spirit 
of  warlike  preparations?  Must  the  white-winged  messengers 
of  peace  who  shall  come  as  the  Evangel  of  a  new  era  of  inter- 
national amity  or  great  "Comity  of  nations,"  have  to  stay  their 
coming  until  they  can  be  invested  with  the  credentials  of  some 
outside  organization  or  world-wide  alliance,  because  Christian- 
ity has  proved  recreant  to  the  trust  committed  to  it  ? 

255 


'ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 


IV. 

"How  stands  the  notion  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  in  demo- 
cratic America,  in  the  new  world  with  its  new  standards  of 
conduct?"  asked  the  late  Dr.  Huntington  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Federation  of  Church  Clubs  in  Grace  Church,  New  York  City. 
This  question  he  proceeded  to  answer  in  these  words :  "Very- 
much  at  a  discount,  we  feel  the  impulse  at  first  to  reply.  Peo- 
ple say  that  the  church  is  outworn,  and  cannot  solve  the  prob- 
lem which  weighs  so  heavily  on  men's  hearts ;  that  it  is  taken 
up  with  controversies  about  the  method  of  worship  and 
wedded  to  tradition." 

Jesus  Christ's  method  of  spreading  His  gospel  among  men 
is  contained  in  Luke's  gospel;  His  commission  to  the  seventy 
whom  he  sent  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  coming  contained 

these  words:     "And  into  whatsoever  city  ye  enter 

heal  the  sick  therein  and  say  unto  them,  the  Kingdom  of  God 
is  come  nigh  unto  you."  And  it  is  recorded  of  the  early 
Christians  that  they  went  forth  and  preached  everywhere,  the 
Lord  working  with  them  and  confirming  the  word  "with  signs 
following." 

Into  what  city  is  organized  Christianity  preparing  the  way 
for  the  coming  Master,  even  as  He  commanded  the  seventy? 
Why  has  the  church  lost  its  hold  on  the  great  mass  of  people  ? 
Simply  because  it  has  no  message  for  them  after  the  manner 
of  Jesus  Christ's  commission ;  because  its  preaching  is  without 
practice,  because  "the  signs  following,"  which  marked  the 
first  few  centuries  of  the  Christian  Era  are  wanting;  because 
its  creeds  are  not  followed  with  deeds  that  will  demonstrate 
their  verity  and  vitality.  It  has  practically  ceased  to  function. 
Students  of  physiology  know  what  happens  to  an  organ  that 
becomes  useless.     It  dies  of  inanition. 

"One  must  experience  a  severe  shock  in  going  from  the 
elaborate   and   exclusive   forms   of  modern    Christianity   into 

256 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

the  presence  of  the  Lord  whom  it  professes  to  adore  and  fol- 
low. It  is  at  first  sight  hard  to  discover  the  connection  be- 
tween its  multipHed  machinery  and  His  sublime  simplicity,  its 
emphasis  upon  ritual  and  His  sole  reliance  upon  the  prophetic 
gift,  its  confidence  in  apostolic  succession  and  His  glorious 
trust  in  truth;  its  redundant  and  exclusive  ecclesiasticism  and 
the  Master's  absolute  immunity  from  this  disease. 

"When  one  considers  this  Divine  preacher,  either  in  the 
humble  meeting  houses  of  His  people,  or  in  the  fields  of 
Galilee  and  the  hillsides  of  Judea,  notes  the  pure  spirituality  of 
His  message  and  the  interior  splendor  of  His  soul,  one  is  ready 
to  assert  that  the  only  hope  of  the  proudly  orthodox  churches 
of  the  world  is  in  ever  deeper  association  with  Him.  In  no 
other  way  would  it  seem  to  be  possible  that  they  should  ever 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  things  for  which  He  had  a  divine  con- 
cern, awake  to  the  awful  contrast  that  exists  between  the 
spirituality  and  simplicity  of  His  cause  and  the  mixed  and 
multitudinous  character  of  their  own,  and  subordinate  their 
idiosyncrasies  to  the  universality  and  freedom  of  His  king- 
dom." ^ 

Healing  by  spiritual  means  was  one  of  the  foundation 
stones  of  early  Christianity.  The  exemplification  of  this  orig- 
inal tenet  by  the  Christian  Science  Church  after  twenty  cen- 
turies and  in  an  age  of  materialistic  opinion,  proves  its  re- 
markable vitality  as  an  essential  of  the  Christian  religion. 

What,  then,  is  the  object  lesson  which  the  Christian  Science 
movement  is  giving  organized  Christianity  as  to  the  present 
possibility  of  fulfilling  the  missionary  directions  which  Jesus 
Christ  gave  to  His  disciples?  Does  it  mean  that  the  orthodox 
churches  are  destined  to  pass  out  of  existence  and  that  Chris- 
tian Science  is  to  take  their  places?  Does  it  not  mean  that 
Christianity  will  be  compelled  to  return  to  its  true  and  original 

^  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon,  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1910. 

257 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

functions,  and  to  adopt  such  simple  methods  and  forms  as  are 
more  nearly  in  accord  with  the  primitive  Christianity  of  the 
New  Testament  ? 

Time  was  when  the  Christian  religion  stood  for  the  mystic 
vision,  for  the  sense  of  the  Unseen,  for  communion  with  the 
Infinite  Father  of  our  spirits;  when  the  market  was  outside; 
when  the  public  assemblies  were  outside ;  when  the  mechanism 
of  social  organization  was  outside,  when  it  signified  the  com- 
munity "at  prayer,"  the  community  "practicing  the  presence 
of  God,"  the  community  making  that  presence  felt  in  the  heal- 
ing and  saving  power  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Is  that  ideal  one  which  is  being  realized  in  the  worship  and 
works  of  the  Christian  Science  Church?  Is  that  Church  a 
return  not  simply  to  the  faith  and  worship,  but  to  the  healing 
ministry  which  characterized  the  early  Christian  Church,  and 
which  has  been  a  lost  function  of  the  church  for  the  past 
seventeen  centuries?  And  if  this  be  so,  what  is  to  be  the 
future  of  the  orthodox  churches? 


258 


11. 

ORGANIZED  CHRISTIANITY. 
Existing  Conditions  and  Outlook. 

IN  the  following  stirring  passage  the  noted  writer  on  "Church 
Unity,"  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  refers  to  the  wonderful 
changes  which  are  taking  place  in  the  scientific  and  the  re- 
ligious worlds.  All  of  these,  to:  his  mind,  presage  the  coming 
in  of  a  universal  Christianity  which  will  combine  every  essen- 
tial of  that  higher  unity  which  he  has  labored  so  long  to  bring 
about : 

''The  world  has  learned  many  things,"  says  this  writer. 
"We  have  new  views  of  God's  universe.  We  have  new  scien- 
tific methods.  We  have  an  entirely  different  psychology  and 
philosophy.  Our  education  is  much  more  scientific,  much  more 
thorough,  much  more  accurate,  much  more  searching,  much 
more  comprehensive.  All  along  the  fines  of  Hfe,  institutions, 
dogmas,  morals,  new  institutions  are  emerging,  new  questions 
pressing  for  solution ;  the  perspective  is  changed,  the  lights  and 
shadows  are  differently  distributed.  We  are  in  a  state  of 
enormous  transition,  changes  are  taking  place  whose  results  it 
is  impossible  to  tell — reconstruction  is  in  progress  on  the  grand- 
est scale.  Out  of  it  all  will  spring,  in  God's  own  time,  a  re- 
juvenated, a  reorganized,  a  truly  universal  Christianity,  com- 
bining in  a  higher  unity  all  that  is  true  and  real  and  worthy  in 
the  various  sects  which  now  divide  the  world."^ 

Broadly  considered,  are  existing  conditions  in  the  religious 
world  of  to-day,  and  the  outlook. as  to  the.  future  of  organized 
Christianity  such  as  to  indicate  an  early  fulfilment  of  the  antici- 
pations to  which  Prof.  Briggs  has  given  expression? 

The  average  layman  or  church  member  is  becoming  more 
indifferent    to    ecclesiasticism.      Generally    speaking,    neither 

^Church  Unity,  page  435. 

259 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Christians  nor  worldlings  attend  the  orthodox  churches  in  any 
very  great  numbers,  finding  it  unprofitable  to  do  so.  Sermon- 
izing has  lost  its  hold  upon  the  people.  The  religious  con- 
ceptions of  the  church  are  too  narrow,  too  shriveled  up;  there 
is  too  much  class  distinction.  Religion  in  many  cases  is 
scarcely  more  than  a  by-product  of  human  activity,  good  for 
Sunday,  but  of  no  practical  value  for  the  rest  of  the  week. 
Christianity  is  sound  enough  at  the  core,  but  the  organism  is 
evidently  wrong  and  needs  remodeling. 

The  church  has  gone  daft  on  the  subject  of  organization  and 
machinery  and  has  thus  crushed  the  life  out  of  what  real  re- 
ligion it  has  had.  Even  its  preachers  are  weary  of  acting  as 
puppets  or  the  tools  of  a  great  ecclesiastic  machine. 

"The  breakdown  of  ecclesiasticism  in  Europe  is  complete," 
says  the  Rev.  Charles  F.  Aked,  in  a  recent  sermon  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Baptist  Church. 

"The  churches  are  standing,  but  the  people  are  out  of  them, 
and  if  the  people  are  there  the  old  spirit  is  gone.  Ecclesias- 
ticism is  but  an  empty  shell,  and  anyone  who  knows  France  out- 
side of  Paris  as  I  know  it  knows  that  this  is  true.  Atheist 
France  of  to-day  is  the  answer  to  ecclesiastical  France  of  yes- 
terday.   It  is  the  same  in  Italy,  Spain  and  elsewhere. 

"The  growth  of  Socialism  is  another  thing  that  shows  the 
spirit  of  Europe.  Socialism,  as  an  economic  doctrine,  is  to  be 
reprobated.  But  if  you  were  born  in  modern  Europe  you,  too, 
would  have  been  Socialists  and  revolutionists.  International 
Socialism,  as  Europe  knows  it,  is  a  movement  towards  democ- 
racy and  liberty.  Europe  is  ready  for  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.     The  old  gods  have  fallen  down." 

The  great  mass  of  people,  Jews  and  Christian,  are  in  an 
indifferent  mood  as  to  matters  of  religion;  old  dogmas  and 
ancient  institutions  have  lost  their  hold  and  are  tottering  to  a 
fall.  Passive  and  drifting,  they  await  the  call  of  a  new  leader. 
The  need  of  constructive  religious  thought  was  never  more 
imperative  than  at  the  present  time. 

"The  Presbyterian  Church  is  not  orthodox,  judged  by  its 

260 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

own  standards,"  says  Dr.  Briggs;  "it  is  drifting  towards  an 
unknown  and  mysterious  future."  And  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
Congregational  Church  is  not  less  in  question  if  we  accept  the 
recent  endeavor  of  a  prominent  New  Haven  church  of  this 
denomination  to  make  its  creed  more  conformable  to  the  views 
of  the  modern  thinking  world.  Most  of  the  theology,  the  old- 
time  creeds  and  dogmas  of  organized  Christianity  have  gone  to 
the  melting  pot.  It  must  be  evident  to  anyone  who  knows  the 
currents  of  thought  which  have  been  working  during  our  cen- 
tury, and  which  are  now  working  still  more  powerfully,  that 
in  a  very  few  years,  as  Dr.  Briggs  has  significantly  remarked, 
"not  a  single  Protestant  Confession  of  Faith  or  Catechism  will 
retain  binding  authority  in  any  denomination." 

A  prominent  Episcopal  church  divine,  who,  during  the  past 
two  years  has  had  occasion  to  meet  a  large  number  of  clergy- 
men of  all  denominations,  larger,  in  fact,  than  he  had  met  dur- 
ing the  preceding  fifteen  years  of  his  ministry,  propounded  to 
a  great  many  of  these  gentlemen  this  question :  "Do  you  look 
forward  to  any  great  future  for  your  church  in  this  country  ?" 
The  answer  he  received,  with  few  exceptions,  was  this:  "I 
can  see  no  future  for  my  church,  but  I  believe  there  is  a  future 
for  Christianity."^ 

The  organized  Christian  church,  and  the  position  it  now 
occupies,  has  experienced  a  great  change.  Outwardly  the 
manifestation  of  this  change  is  seen  in  the  immense  decline  in 
church  attendance;  inwardly  the  manifestation  is  seen  in  the 
loss  of  authority  over  its  followers. 

No  one  will  deny  that  in  a  certain  sense  the  church  is 
strong,  considered  as  an  organized  institution.  It  is  possessed 
of  much  property ;  it  has  fine  buildings,  and  an  imposing  ritual ; 
it  receives  and  disburses  large  sums  of  money  annually  in  the 
founding  and  maintaining  of  religious  institutions.  It  has  elo- 
quent preachers  in  its  pulpits  and  artistic  music  in  its  choirs. 

^Dr.  Ellwood  Worcester,  in  "Religion  and  Medicine." 

261 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Its  charitable  work  is  extensive;  it  spends  a  large  amount  of 
;money  in  prosecuting  its  missionary  work  at  home  and  abroad ; 
it  supports  a  multitude  of  beneficent  agencies.  Its  educational, 
institutional  and  social  settlement  work  are  all  good,  so  far  as 
they  go.  But  the  painful  fact  remains  that  it  could  possess, 
be,  and  do  all  this  quite  as  well  were  organized  Christianity 
merely  an  ethical  or  philanthropic  institution,  or  known  under 
any  other  name  or  organization,  pagan  as  well  as  Christian. 

People  in  constantly  growing  numbers  are  coming  to  believe 
less  and  less  in  the  necessity  of  uniting  with  the  orthodox 
church  as  essential  to  personal  salvation.  Such  a  step  in  these 
days  carries  no  particular  weight  of  responsibility  and  demands 
no  radical  change  of  life.  Indeed  we  may  seriously  question 
whether  a  majority  of  real  believers,  who  by  the  grace  of  God 
constitute  the  true,  invisible  Church  of  God,  are  within  or  with- 
out the  organized  churches  of  Christendom. 

The  present  position  of  organized  Christianity  is  without 
parallel  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  world.  Its  career 
is  ended  as  a  heavenly  messenger ;  its  spiritual  power  is  gone. 
If  it  be  not  a  heavenly  messenger,  the  accuser  rather  than  the 
friend  of  the  world,  if  it  be  powerless  to  prove  its  faith  by  its 
works,  it  is  nothing. 

III. 

What,  is  organized  Christianity  doing  in  the  face  of  the 
multiplied  evidences  of  moral  disease  and  moral  breakdown  in 
the  business  worlds- and  in  the  realm  of  politics  with  which  the 
: State  and  Nation  are  confronted? 

Why  does  it  continue  to  hide  its  head  in  the  presence  of  our 
high  finance  which  is  nothing  more  than  low-down  stealing  ; 
why  hesitate  to  thunder  forth  its  protests  against  the  wrong- 
doing of  men  of  great  power  who  buy  legislators  and  manip- 
ulate laws  and  law-makers?     What  is  it  doing  to  save  this 

062 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

Commonwealth   from  the  bHghting  effects  of  this  unholy  al- 
liance between  business  and  politics  ? 

*'In  our  own  State,"  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stephen  S.  Wise,  of 
the  Free  Synagogue,  ''we  have  the  spectacle  of  a  Governor  who 
up  to  this  hour  has  refused  to  fight  the  great  fight,  and  who 
will  lose  whosoever  wins."  ''What  support,"  he  inquires,  "are 
we  giving  to  that  small  band  of  men  in  the  legislative  halls  of 
our  State  who  are  standing  out  like  heroes  in  order  to  avert  the 
threatened  disgrace  which  party  tyranny  is  seeking  to  inflict 
upon  us?  On  the  other  hand,  what  condemnation  do  we  visit 
upon  the  heads  of  those  masters  of  coercion  and  intimidation, 
brutally  bent  upon  battering  down  a  brave  and  noble  minority 
who  so  love  their  party  that  they  loathe  its  shame  ? 

Must  organized  Christianity  remain  silent  when  great  indus- 
trial corporations  perpetrate  colossal  frauds  against  the  gov- 
ernment ;  must  it  meekly  accept  the  legal  outcome  of  the  frauds 
which  eventuates  in  the  incarceration  in  our  penitentiaries  of  a 
number  of  miserable  underlings  while  the  masters  and  authors 
of  this  infamy  go  unwhipped  of  justice? 

Has  organized  Christianity  lost  all  capacity  for  high  resent- 
ment ?  Must  it  continue  to  palliate  or  excuse  the  moral  turpi- 
tude of  men  in  high  position  convicted  of  grave  social  or  anti- 
social crimes  ?  Has  it  lost  its  power  or  courage  to  drive  pride 
and  mammon  worship  out  of  its  temples,  or  to  give  efficient 
support  to  the  morally  clean,  strong  and  brave  men  and  the 
group  of  honest  newspapers  and  periodicals  who  are  fighting 
the  battle  for  civic  righteousness  and  the  interests  of  the  many 
against  the  greed  and  the  industrial  oppression  of  the  few? 

The  end  of  this  moral  disease  and  breakdown  in  state  and 
nation  and  municipality  must  come  through  the  determined 
leadership  of  the  religious  and  moral  forces  of  the  nation. 
Why  is  organized  Christianity  not  more  ready  to  assume  the 
leadership  of  these  forces  ?  Why  must  it  continue  supinely  in- 
different to  the  existence  and  persistence  of  a  social  and  indus- 
trial order  which  is  based  upon  iniquity  and  unrighteousness  ? 

263 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Will  it  continue  to  excuse  itself  by  building  a  majestic  tem- 
ple for  the  sensuous  worship  of  the  God  of  Heaven,  while  it 
suffers  His  sons  and  daughters  to  rot  and  perish  in  death-deal- 
ing tenements  to  which  they  are  doomed  by  the  present  system 
of  injustice — a  system  which  reflects  the  selfishness  and  the 
godlessness  of  a  so-called  Christian  nation  whose  religion  is 
made  up  of  profession  rather  than  practice.  Must  the  spirit  of 
Christian  unity  and  of  Christian  co-operation  die  out  of  evan- 
gelical Christianity,  leaving  its  ecclesiastical  systems  a  mere 
shell  on  the  verge  of  collapse? 

'*We  complain  of  Christianity,"  said  a  speaker  at  a  meeting 
of  delegates  to  the  Hebrew  Council  held  recently  in  the  Temple 
Emanu-El,  "because  during  twenty  centuries  of  its  civilization 
the  worship  of  God  has  estranged  the  love  of  man.  More 
crimes  have  been  committed  in  the  name  of  religion,  more  tor- 
ture, misery  and  oppression  have  sprung  from  religious  fanati- 
cism than  from  all  other  human  agencies  combined.  The  sit- 
uation of  the  Jew  in  Russia  is  no  longer  a  Russian  infamy, 
but  a  world  scandal  for  which  modern  civilization  must  be 
haled  before  the  tribunal  of  conscience.  It  is  not  a  Jewish 
question  at  all — it  is  a  question  of  humanity  and  it  ought  to  be 
a  Christian  question,  if  Christianity  means  what  we  are  told 
it  does." 

Is  this  scathing  indictment  one  which  the  facts  support  ?  Is 
organized  Christianity  really  Christian  in  any  true  sense?  If 
it  has  failed  to  do  mighty  battle  for  God  and  oppressed  human- 
ity is  it  because  its  divisions  have  sapped  and  destroyed  its 
effectiveness  as  a  moral  agency  in  the  world ;  is  it  because  it  is 
overburdened  with  ecclesiastical  systems  which,  instead  of 
being  a  source  of  organized  power,  are  an  element  of  weakness 
in  the  body  politic  and  a  sign  of  decadence? 

The  message  of  the  Son  of  Man  to  the  Angel  of  the  Church 
of  the  Laocedians  has  lost  none  of  its  significance  in  the  lapse 
of  centuries.  Has  it  no  meaning  in  this  day  and  age  for  a 
sectarian  Christianity  which  has  so  signally  failed  to  realize  the 

264 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

religious  ideals  of  the  great  Founder  of  the  Christian  religion, 
or  successfully  to  maintain  its  claims  as  an  authoritative  re- 
ligious institution? 

"I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot:  I 
would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.  So  then  because  thou  art  luke- 
warm, and  neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my 
mouth.  Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich,  and  increased  with 
goods,  and  have  need  of  nothing;  and  knowest  not  that  thou 
are  wretched,  and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked: 
I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  gold  tried  in  the  fire,  that  thou 
mayest  be  rich,  and  white  raiment,  that  thou  mayest  be 
clothed,  and  that  the  shame  of  thy  nakedness  do  not  appear ; 
and  anoint  thine  eyes  with  eye-salve  that  thou  mayest  see." 
(Rev.  Ill,  14-18.) 

Christianity  and  Judaism. 

According  to  a  prominent  German-Jewish  savant  in  a  re- 
cent article  in  the  Judische  Zeitschrift,  "Christianity  is  at 
present  engaged  in  the  process  of  self-dissolution ;  it  is  return- 
ing to  Judaism,  whence  it  sprang."  Referring  to  the  original 
Christianity  of  Jesus,  as  preached  by  Prof.  Harnack  in  his 
monumental  work,  "The  Essence  of  Christianity,"  another 
prominent  Jewish  thinker  finds  warrant  for  a  significant  state- 
ment to  the  effect  that  Prof.  Harnack  has,  by  the  strictest  of 
historical  criticism,  eliminated  from  real  and  original  Chris- 
tianity all  those  features  which  Jewish  teachers  have  found 
objectionable  in  the  Christian  system.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
leading  German  university  professor  contends  that  the  world- 
mission  of  Judaism  is  to  absorb  Christianity ;  that  the  mission 
of  Christianity  has  been  to  prepare  the  world  for  the  propa- 
ganda of  a  higher  and  spiritualized  Judaism.  He  further  in- 
sists that  the  time  has  come  for  Judaism  with  its  special  mis- 
sion to  supplant  Christianity.  But,  says  Mission-director  Dr. 
Biding  of  Berlin: 

"The  radical  Jew  is  no  more  representative  of  Judaism  than 

265 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

the  radical  Christian  is  of  Christianity.  The  approach  of  the 
two  is  only  along  lines  of  general  religious  speculation  which 
has  deserted  both  historic  Christianity  and  historic  Judaism. 
Real  Christianity  is  showing  not  the  slightest  signs  of  denying 
its  identity  and  its  raison  d'etre.  It  will  never  permit  itself  to 
be  absorbed  by  Judaism." 

If  we  turn  to  the  monotheism  of  historic  Judaism,  we  are 
confronted  with  a  peculiar  situation.  While  the  God  of  the 
Hebrew  religion  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  God  of  the  whole 
earth,  yet  by  reason  of  tribal  statutes  and  enactments,  he  is 
constituted  the  God  of  the  Hebrew  nation  only.  And  by  mak- 
ing the  law  which  they  have  formulated  the  law  of  God,  a  dis- 
tinction between  Jew  and  Gentile  worlds  has  been  created, 
hence  all  those  who  have  not  the  Jewish  law  are  of  necessity 
outside  the  pale  of  the  Jewish  church.  It  is  not  enough  that 
other  people  are  God's  children :  to  share  in  His  grace  and 
covenant  they  must  embrace  the  Jewish  religion.  The  God  who 
is  the  God  of  all  the  nations  thus  becomes  in  an  especial  sense 
the  God  of  Israel,  the  Holy  One  of  their  tribe.  Jehovah  is 
pre-eminently  their  God  and  they  are  His  chosen  people,  en- 
titled to  fix  the  terms  on  which  the  Gentiles  shall  participate 
in  His  grace. 

Out  of  this  tribal  history,  as  will  be  readily  seen,  has  grown 
the  tendency  of  the  Jewish  people  to  restrict  God  to  a  particular 
place  or  definite  temple,  His  ministry  to  a  specific  priesthood, 
His  worship  to  special  forms  and  His  servants  to  a  peculiar 
people.  And  this  tendency  to  restrict  the  worship  of  God  and 
the  enjoyment  of  God's  blessings  to  a  particular  church,  has 
not  died  out  with  the  ages.  It  finds  its  manifestation  in  the 
tenacity  with  which  organized  Christianity  holds  to  its  dogmas 
and  creeds  and  institutions,  its  priesthood,  apostolic  succession, 
its  symbols  and  sacraments  declared  to  be  the  conditions  of 
God's  presence  and  the  media  of  grace. 

The  more  the  Jewish  people  make  the  law  they  have  enacted 

266 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

the  law  of  God,  the  less  can  they  allow  those  who  have  not  this 
law  any  share  in  their  God. 

''By  building  the  temple  they  localized  the  worship  of  Him 
who  knew  no  place ;  by  drawing  tighter  the  terms  of  the  cov- 
enant, they  confined  to  themselves  the  Father  who  loves  every 
people ;  by  forming  an  hereditary  priesthood  they  attached 
His  service  to  one  family ;  by  elaborating  their  ceremonies, 
they  shut  religion  within  the  ritual  which  they  alone  possessed, 
though  even  here  the  ethical  sovereignty  which  could  not  be 
denied  to  Jehovah  made  Him  broader  than  their  law."^ 

It  is  one  of  the  supreme  ironies  of  history  that  the  last 
century  in  which  the  Jewish  people  existed  as  a  nation  was 
also  the  period  of  their  most  frenzied  particularism.  "In  the 
heated  imagination  of  the  tribe  the  vessel  became  more  in- 
finitely precious  than  the  treasure  it  carried." 

"The  pathos  of  Israel's  position,"  declares  Dr.  Fairbairn, 
"lies  in  their  invincible  devotion  to  the  national  forms  of  a 
belief,  which,  in  order  that  it  might  realize  itself  and  become 
man's,  required  to  lose  all  trace  of  its  national  and  tribal  his- 
tory and  to  live  in  a  medium  as  universal  as  its  nature  and 
function."  And  this  impossibility  of  either  surrendering  or 
realizing  his  religious  ideal,  as  Dr.  Fairbairn  observes,  ''is  the 
tragedy  in  the  religious  history  of  the  Jewish  people'*^ 

And  what  does  a  diagnosis  of  Jewish  religious  conditions 
reveal?  Does  it  not  indicate  indifference,  inertness,  disloyalty, 
lack  of  spiritual  integrity  ?  Are  these  not  among  the  prominent 
symptoms  of  present-day  Jewish  life.  Are  these  not  all  the 
more  complicated  from  the  revival  of  an  old  bitterness  which 
does  Judaism  little  honor?  And  has  not  this  bitterness  grown 
out  of  an  attempted  capitalization  of  what  the  Russian  Jew 
imagines  to  be  ill-will  and  unfriendliness  toward  him  by  his 
earlier  and  more  successful  brother,  the  American  Jew  of  the 
German  immigration  movement? 

^Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,  page  252. 
-The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,  page  245. 

267 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

The  disintegration  of  Judaism  is  no  less  pronounced  than 
that  of  organized  Christianity;  nor  is  the  inmost  spirit  of 
Judaism  any  more  regnant  to-day  in  the  Uves  of  Jewish  sons 
and  daughters  than  is  the  spirit  and  truth  of  Christ  regnant  in 
the  hearts  of  the  great  mass  of  professed  adherents  of  organ- 
ized Christianity. 

"We  need  a  reformation  of  the  Jew,"  says  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Stephen  S.  Wise,  a  prominent  rabbi  of  the  Jewish  church,  and 
the  same  may  be  truly  said  of  many  an  orthodox  Christian, 
"not  because  he  is  orthodox,  not  because  he  is  reform,  but  be- 
cause he  is  neither;  because  in  a  large  part  he  is  unattached  and 
drifting  rudderless;  because  he  is  threatened  with  the  gravest 
perils  that  can  befall  a  people,  the  loss  of  religion  and  the  loss 
of  moral  ideas." 

The  present  disputes  among  the  supporters  and  opponents 
of  reformed  Judaism  come  at  a  time  when  Israel  sadly  needs 
harmony  instead  of  discord  and  dissension. 

"It  is  much  to  be  regretted,"  continues  Dr.  Wise,  "that  the 
counter-reformation  has  come  into  being  at  a  time  when  the 
united  councils  of  Israel  are  more  imperatively  needed  than 
they  have  been  for  many  years.  By  it  we  are  launched  upon  a 
sea  of  strife  and  discord  at  a  time  when  Israel  needs  a  unifying, 
statesmanlike  leadership,  and  a  well  disciplined,  loyal  follow- 
ing. If  the  counter-reformation  should  prevail  in  the  Jewish 
Cathedral  of  New  York,  it  were  no  victory  for  conservatism, 
for  the  Temple  Emanu-El  has  not  for  many  years  held  the 
leadership  of  the  reform  movement.  A  synagogue,  however 
empty,  and  a  cemetery,  however  full,  do  not  make  a  temple 
of  the  living  God,  nor  of  living  men.  It  may  be  named  a 
reform  temple  only  by  those  who  unjustly  regard  reform  and 
indifference  as  interchangeable  terms." 

The  distinctively  religious  work  of  historic  Judaism,  as 
Judaism,  has  been  done.  The  fulfilment  of  its  providential 
mission  is  written  large  on  the  pages  of  history.  Concurrently 
with  the  passing  of  the  Protestant  age  is  the  passing  of  historic 
Judaism.     Both  alike  presage  the  coming  of  a  new  religious 

268 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

order  that  will  embody  the  ideal  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ, 
seeing  which  the  world  might  believe. 

Christian  Science  Evangelism. 

The  supreme  and  pre-eminent  achievement  of  Jesus  Christ 
was  to  emancipate  and  to  embody  the  universal  idea  of  the 
Hebrew  religion  in  the  Christian  religion,  a  religion  which  is 
at  once  the  most  universal  and  missionary  religion  on  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

As  Jesus  taught  it,  Christianity  was  not  a  creed,  a  code  of 
ceremonies,  nor  a  special  gift  from  a  ritualistic  Jehovah.  It 
was  a  religion  of  works.  These  works  confirmed  prophecy  and 
explained  the  so-called  miracles  of  former  ages  as  natural 
proofs  of  the  divine  power.  By  them  Jesus  authenticated  His 
claim  to  the  Messiahship,  maintained  His  mission,  and  taught 
His  followers  that  His  religion  has  a  divine  Principle,  which 
will  both  heal  the  sick  and  save  the  sinful.  He  claimed  no  in- 
telligence, action  or  life  apart  from  God. 

Jewish  teachers  now  profess  to  find  in  the  original  Chris- 
tianity of  Jesus  Christ  an  elimination  of  those  features  which 
have  heretofore  been  regarded  as  objectionable  in  the  Chris- 
tian system.  Hence  the  significance  of  the  work  which  the 
Christian  Science  Church  is  doing  to  restore  primitive  Chris- 
tianity  to  the  world  and  which  it  is  accomplishing  more  suc- 
cessfully than  any  other  religious  body  in  existence.  The  pro- 
gress of  this  movement  points  unmistakably  to  the  ushering  in 
of  an  era  of  true  Christian  unity  among  Jesus'  followers,  so 
comprehensive  as  to  include  not  only  Christians  of  every  de- 
nomination and  of  every  land,  but  also  the  Jew  and  Gentile  of 
every  race. 

The  central  dogma  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  is  the 
central  dogma  of  the  Jewish  Church ;  it  is  the  central  dogma  of 
the  Christian  religion :  "Hear,  O  Israel !  The  Lord  thy  God 
is  one  Lord ;  thou  shall  have  no  other  gods  before  Me." 

269 


"ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

The  Christian  Science  tenets  and  demonstration  of  healing 
and  the  saving  power  of  Jesus'  gospel  furnish  a  platform  of 
faith  and  work  upon  which  Jew  and  Christian  may,  and  do, 
stand  together  in  true  religious  fellowship.  It  rejects  all  the 
limitations  of  family,  tribal  or  national  religion.  It  is  not 
bound  to  any  creed  or  institution. 

"Of  old,"  writes  Mrs.  Eddy,  "the  Jews  put  to  death  the 
Galilean  Prophet,  the  best  Christian  on  earth,  for  the  truth 
He  spoke  and  demonstrated,  while  to-day  Jew  and  Christian 
can  unite  in  doctrine  and  demonstration  on  the  very  basis  of 
Jesus'  words  and  works.  The  Jew  believes  that  the  Messiah  or 
Christ  has  not  yet  come;  the  Christian  believes  that  Christ  is 
God.  Here  Christian  Science  intervenes,  explains  these  doc- 
trinal points,  cancels  the  disagreement,  and  settles  the  ques- 
tion. Christ,  as  the  true  spiritual  idea,  is  the  ideal  of  God  now 
and  forever,  here  and  everywhere.  The  Jew  who  believes  in 
the  First  Commandment  is  a  monotheist ;  he  has  one  omni- 
potent God.  Thus  the  Jew  unites  with  the  Christian's  doctrine 
that  God  is  come  and  is  present  now  and  forever.  The  Chris- 
tian who  believes  in  the  First  Commandment  is  a  monotheist. 
Thus  he  virtually  unites  with  the  Jew's  belief  in  one  God,  and 
recognizes  that  Jesus  Christ  is  not  God,  as  Jesus  Himself  de- 
clared, but  is  the  Son  of  God.  This  declaration  of  Jesus  under- 
stood, conflicts  not  at  all  with  another  of  His  sayings :  T  and 
My  Father  are  one' — that  is,  one  in  quality,  not  quantity.  As 
a  drop  of  water  is  one  with  the  ocean,  a  ray  of  light  one  with 
the  sun,  even  so  God  and  Man,  Father  and  Son,  are  one  in 
being.  The  Scripture  reads — For  in  Him  we  live,  and  move, 
and  have  our  being."^ 

Christian  Science  evangelism  is  the  evangelism  of  the  New 
Testament ;  it  is  the  evangelism  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
— in  other  words — primitive  Christianity.  It  illustrates  and 
exemplifies  by  practical  demonstration  the  power  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  to  break  the  fetters  which  have  held  mankind  in 
bondage  to  sin,  disease  and  death. 

The  tendency  of  thought  in  the  present  century  is  away 

*  Science  and  Health,  page  361 

270 


ORGANIZED    CHRISTIANITY 

from  the  so-called  conservative,  dogmatic  theology,  with  its 
radical  elaboration  of  speculative  dogma.  It  is  towards  the 
person  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"The  discovery  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  discovery  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  says  a  prominent  divine  of  the  Episcopal  church. 
That  discovery  has  been  made  prominent  by  a  New  England 
woman  who  has  formulated  Jesus'  teachings  in  the  Christian 
Science  Text-book  and  embodied  Jesus'  spirit  and  healing 
power  in  a  religious  movement  which  is  doing  more  to  rein- 
state primitive  Christianity  and  restore  its  lost  element  of 
healing  than  any  other  religious  denomination  in  Christendom. 
"Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  has  made 
the  Bible  a  new  book ;  its  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures has  quickened  the  religious  faith  and  lives  of  many 
thousands  all  over  the  world  and  made  practical  to  this  age 
the  establishment  of  a  church  which  is  demonstrating  the 
quickening,  healing  power  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  in  apos- 
tolic times. 

The  message  and  mission  of  Christian  Science  is  as  wide  as 
humanity;  it  fires  the  consciousness  of  men  with  the  enthus- 
iasm and  saving  power  of  early  Christianity.  For  war  it 
would  substitute  peace;  for  the  competition  that  blights  and 
degrades,  the  co-operation  that  quickens  and  ennobles.  Chris- 
tian Science  unfolds  the  principles  upon  which  the  true  broth- 
erhood of  man  is  based.  In  place  of  the  extremes  of  luxury 
and  want  characteristic  of  our  present  social  state,  it  teaches 
a  more  generous  and  equal  distribution  of  means  and  re- 
sources. It  would  assure  to  every  human  being  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth  the  opportunity  to  make  the  most  of  the  faculties 
and  opportunities  which  a  beneficent  Creator  has  given  him. 

Christian  Science  presents  a  new  vision  of  salvation ;  it 
exalts  the  possibilities  of  love  and  service  and  points  the  way 
to  a  grand  re-birth  of  society ;  to  the  elimination  of  the  wrongs 
and  the  amelioration  of  the  evils  of  our  social  state;  to  the 

271 


"ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

re-invigoration  of  the  faith  of  Christendom  and  the  reappear- 
ance of  the  Christianity  which  heals  the  sick,  comforts  the 
sorrowing,  saves  the  sinful,  destroys  error  and  introduces  the 
universal  reign  of  brotherhood  and  love. 


272 


III. 

CHURCH  UNITY  — IS  IT  ATTAINABLE? 

WILL  Protestantism  pass  out  of  existence  or  continue  to 
remain  a  cluster  of  rival  orthodoxies  disowning  and 
repelling  each  other  ?  Or  is  there  a  reasonable  expectation  that 
these  constituent  parts  will  become  reconciled  to  each  other, 
or  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  ?  Will  the  discords,  divisions 
and  controversies  of  organized  Christendom  give  place  to  the 
peace  and  concord  of  a  Christianity  patterned  after  the  Christ- 
ideals  and  possessed  of  the  healing  power  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian Church? 

To  answer  these  questions  we  must  remember  that  we  are 
not  dealing  with  causes  but  facing  conditions  as  they  actually 
exist.  We  are  not  called  upon  to  consider  the  speculations  of 
dogmatic  theologians,  but  stubborn  facts  in  the  Christian 
world.  We  are  not  to  meet  mere  theories,  but  a  Christianity 
divided  and  decadent  on  its  organized  or  institutional  side,  a 
Christianity  whose  rehabilitation  and  unity  as  the  one  uni- 
versal Church  of  Christ  is  the  great  consummation  devoutly 
to  be  desired. 

To  have  a  church  is  not  the  same  thing  as  to  have  a  re- 
ligion. Church  buildings  and  church  services  held  therein  are 
but  an  imperfect  mode  of  expression  of  the  Christian  fellow- 
ship which  links  together  all  who  are  actuated  by  love  for 
God  and  love  for  their  fellowmen.  They  are  but  type  and 
symbol  of  the  universal  Christian  church.  The  creative  idea 
is  the  religion.  The  church  is  the  created  or  corporate  form  of 
worship  and  service,  an  organized  institution  which  must  agree 
with  the  religion,  whose  interpreter,  agent  or  medium  for  its 
realization  it  must  be. 

Dr.  Newman  Smyth,  writing  on  the  subject  of  "Passing 

273 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Protestantism  and  Coming  Catholicism,"  declares  the  problem 
of  church  unity  to  be  one  of  "visibility,"  having  as  its  starting 
point  of  Christian  faith  an  acknowledgment  of  the  fact  that 
we  all  do  belong  to  the  one  church  of  Christ,  that  the  body  of 
Christ  is  neither  church  uniformity  nor  church  union.  And  as 
Bishop  Brewster,  of  Connecticut,  truly  says:  ''Unity  means 
oneness;  union  is  the  binding  together  of  things  that  are  not 
one.  Unity  is  inward  and  essential.  Union  is  mechanical;  it 
is  put  together.  The  endeavor  after  Christian  union  may 
achieve  alliances  and  federations,  and  still  is  perpetuated  actual 
separation.^ 

What  we  have  to  consider  is  the  possibility  of  the  restora- 
tion to  Christendom  of  that  visible  church  unity  which  first 
took  form  and  found  its  embodiment  in  the  early  Christian  or 
Apostolic  Church ;  a  unity  maintained  unbroken  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  until  the  Protestant  reformation  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  advocates  of  Church  unity,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  has  been  for  the  past  twenty-five 
years  deeply  interested  in  the  subject  and  has  earnestly  la- 
bored in  its  behalf.  During  that  time  he  has  made  numerous 
addresses  on  the  subject  before  Roman  Catholics  in  America, 
France  and  Rome,  and  also  before  Protestant  bodies.  He  has 
written  a  large  number  of  articles  for  reviews,  magazines  and 
journals  of  various  kinds,  both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  In 
a  recent  volume,  "Church  Unity,"  he  has  gathered  in  book 
form  the  results  of  his  labors.  There  is  no  question  as  to  his 
ripe  scholarship;  and,  as  may  be  expected,  the  volume  con- 
tains a  great  amount  of  valuable  material.  The  unity  which 
he  sees  is  not  that  of  divided  Protestantism  only,  but  a  larger 
union,  large  enough  to  embrace  such  diverse  elements  as  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Eastern  churches  and  the  Church 
of  England. 

^  "The  Catholic  Idea  of  the  Church,"  Page  28. 

274 


i 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

Dr.  E.  S.  Drown,  in  a  recent  review  of  this  volume  holds 
that  the  fundamental  question  as  to  Church  unity  relates  to 
the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  Christian  Church,  *'as  a 
permanent  organism  in  society."  While  this  reviewer  does 
not  consider  that  Dr.  Briggs  has  given  that  phase  of  the  sub- 
ject satisfactory  treatment,  he  is  obliged  to  admit  that  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  is  extremely  difficult.  Dr.  Briggs  has  well 
said  that  ''Christian  Irenics,"  which  aims  to  reconcile  and  or- 
ganize the  discordant  elements  of  Christianity  in  peace  and 
concord  in  the  unity  of  Christ's  Church,  demands  first  of  all, 
a  courageous  quest  for  truth,  and  courage  to  rise  above  the 
prejudices  of  denominational  or  scholastic  theology. 

There  is  no  question  as  to  the  quality  of  the  courage  re*- 
quired  to  face  without  quailing,  the  task  of  bringing  together 
over  two  hundred  odd  parties,  churches,  or  more  or  less  war- 
ring sects,  that  for  centuries  have  found  it  impossible  to  com- 
pass their  religious  differences  or  to  agree  upon  a  basis  of 
uniformity,  either  in  doctrine,  ritual  or  polity. 

Within  any  religious  denomination,  it  is  safe  to  say,  there 
is  more  dissatisfaction  and  less  agreement  than  there  is  among 
political  parties  which  make  no  profession  of  Christian  faith 
or  fellowship.  The  tragedy  of  it  is  that  millions  of  money 
are  given  away  yearly  by  churchmen  to  be  spent  in  ways  that 
really  erect  barriers  to  church  progress  and  tend  to  perpetuate 
conditions  which  make  religious  living  almost  impossible. 

Christendom,  as  it  stands  to-day,  exemplifies  neither  church 
unity  nor  a  spirit  of  Christian  unity.  In  New  York  City  there 
are  no  less  than  sixty-five  Christian  bodies  that  use  the  same 
Bible,  profess  allegiance  to  the  same  God,  and  yet  are  not  in 
agreement  as  to  what  the  Bible  teaches.  They  differ  as  to 
doctrine,  ordinances  and  modes  of  worship.  Each  church 
claims  the  right  to  work  and  worship  according  to  its  own 
conscience  and  judgment  and  until  very  recently  has  denied 
that  right  to  its  neighbor, 

275 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Church  unity  involves  coalescence,  in  place  of  the  present 
plurality  of  Christian  denominations ;  it  involves  not  only  geo- 
graphical as  well  as  doctrinal  unity,  but  uniformity  in  church 
polity  and  allegiance  to  a  fixed  form  of  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, all  of  which  will  of  necessity  call  for  an  abandonment  of 
doctrinal  beliefs  and  religious  methods  held  by  some  of  the 
most  powerful  denominations  of  Christendom  as  fundamental 
to  the  Christian  church. 

Church  unity  has  to  do  with  the  Protestant  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  churches  in  their  organized  or  institutional  forms, 
varied  and  differing  orders  of  worship,  ritual,  liturgies  and 
discipline,  ceremonies  and  sacraments;  its  priesthood  and 
sacred  times;  its  creeds,  confessions  of  faith,  decrees,  articles, 
catechism,  etc.  These,  while  framed  to  define  the  differences, 
have  served  to  emphasize  the  discords  of  Christendom,  and  too 
often,  they  show  evidences  of  human  passion  and  strife,  the 
false  use  of  Scripture  and  history,  and  improper  methods  of 
argumentation. 

Church  unity  deals  with  different  types  and  parties  within 
the  church ;  with  a  great  variety  and  diversity  of  ecclesiastical 
organizations  independent  of,  indifferent,  and,  in  many  cases, 
hostile  to  each  other.  It  finds  Christianity  enveloped  in  a  noisy 
and  confusing  dissensus  and  a  dreary  mist  of  prejudice,  mis- 
interpretation and  misunderstanding,  and  is  confronted  by  a 
Christian  world  in  a  chaos  of  discordant  elements  and 
theologies.  Out  of  this  chaos  emerges  the  alternative  of  sub- 
mission to  an  Infallible  Pontiff.  It  encounters  denominational 
partizanship  and  sectarian  bigotry ;  it  meets  opposition  from 
dogmaticians  and  ecclesiastics  and  scholastic  schools,  which 
identify  Christianity  with  their  sect  or  party  and  regard  their 
own  church  as  the  one  church  of  Apostolic  descent,  of  con- 
tinuous life,  of  supernatural  endowment  and  divine  authority. 
It  has  to  face  reactionaries  and  conservatives  and  schools  of 
Polemic   theology   which   vigorously   oppose   revision   of   de- 

276 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS  IT  ATTAINABLE? 

nominational  standards  and  any  kind  of  new  dogmatic  state- 
ment, and  which  resist  with  zeal  and  determination  new  meth- 
ods, statements,  doctrines,  in  fact,  any  change  in  the  old  order, 
as  an  overturning  of  the  Christian  faith.  Having  attained  a 
final  knowledge  of  the  truth,  they  have  nothing  more  to  learn 
from  the  Bible,  the  Church  or  the  progress  of  civilization  in 
the  world. 

Primitive  Christianity  was  united  in  one  church  and  fused 
together  in  the  fires  of  persecution  and  martyrdom.  But  for 
past  centuries  the  different  members  of  the  Christian  family 
have  been  unable  to  agree  among  themselves.  Furthermore, 
to  secure  the  unity  of  Christendom  as  a  whole,  involves  not 
merely  a  reunion  of  the  warring  sects  composing  Protestantism 
but  reunion  or  reconciliation  with  Rome.  Here  we  find  a 
situation  which  might  well  appall  the  most  ardent  and  stout- 
hearted worker  in  the  cause  of  church  unity.  The  Episcopal 
Church  is  divided  over  the  question  of  the  historical  episco- 
pate; the  Presbyterian  Church  is  no  better  agreed  as  to  the 
status  of  the  historical  presbyter.  The  Greek  Church  will  not 
agree  with  the  Roman;  neither  will  the  Roman  Church  agree 
with  the  Anglican.  The  Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Congre- 
gationalists,  and  Lutherans  cannot  accept  the  Anglo-Catholic 
theory  of  the  episcopate;  and  the  Anglo-Catholics  have  yet  to 
conquer  other  parties  in  the  Episcopal  Church  before  they  can 
overcome  the  hosts  of  non-episcopal  churches  which  are  unani- 
mously against  them. 

The  claims  of  the  Episcopal  Church  as  to  the  historic  episco- 
pate include  the  following:  ist,  that  the  divine  right  of  in- 
stitution belongs  to  Jesus  and  the  Apostles ;  2nd,  that  its  Dio- 
cesan Bishops  are  the  successors  of  the  Apostles ;  3rd,  that  no 
valid  ministry  exists  except  by  ordination  of  Bishops,  a  func- 
tion which  has  in  it  a  special  grace ;  4th,  that  Diocesan  Bishops 
have  divine  authority  to  rule  the  church.  These  broad  and 
sweeping  claims  are  not  likely  ever  to  be  recognized  by  other 

277 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

denominations  nor  to  be  renounced  by  the  Episcopal  Church. 
Hence  the  reunion  of  Christendom  on  the  basis  of  such  claims 
is  very  remote,  particularly  as  these  claims  are  associated  with 
the  tyranny  and  the  abuses  which  the  church  has  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Diocesan  Bishops. 

To  get  the  Presbyterin  Church  to  agree  that  the  Bishops 
have  exclusive  divine  right  to  transmit  the  divine  order  would 
be  a  well  nigh  impossible  task.  Presbyterians  would  not  be  will- 
ing to  agree  to  theories  of  higher  orders  associated  with  pre- 
rogative, pride,  ambition,  tyranny  and  despotism.  Apart  from 
this  fact  is  the  further  fact  that  there  is  actually  more  tyranny 
in  Presbyterianism  and  modern  Congregationalism  than  there 
is  in  the  historic  Episcopate. 

Those  who  are  laboring  for  church  unity  have  to  deal  with 
religious  denominations  which  continue  a  policy  that  excludes 
all  who  will  not  subscribe  to  provincial  conditions  of  member- 
ship. The  proposed  union  of  the  institutional  life  of  the 
church  finds  a  Lord's  table  "reserved  for  Baptists."  It  en- 
counters a  tendency  to  suspect  a  man  of  impiety  because  he 
cannot  be  a  Methodist  and  use  the  religious  exercises  of  cer- 
tain evangelists,  or  to  regard  as  a  heretic  one  who  will  not 
subscribe  to  a  dogma  held  by  provincial  Presbyterianism.  The 
refusal  of  a  ceremony  peculiar  to  Anglo-Catholics  is  adjudged 
to  be  schismatic;  the  failure  to  submit  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Roman  Church,  so  serious  a  crime  as  to  destroy  all  hope 
of  salvation. 

Church  unity  involves  the  task  of  reconciling  two  chief 
religious  types,  one  valuing  ceremony,  artistic  accessories,  hu- 
man organization  and  interventions,  and  conceiving  of  a  spe- 
cial power  miraculuously  transmitted  by  the  imposition  of 
hands ;  the  other  dispensing  with  adventitious  aids,  seeking  to 
worship  neither  in  temple  nor  in  mountains  but  directly  ''in 
Spirit  and  in  Truth,"  the  Holy  Spirit  being  accessible  to  all. 

Church   unity   encounters   what    is   termed    the   Apostolic 

278 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

view,  which  regards  the  church  as  God's  vicegerent  upon  earth, 
and  its  priests  as  possessing  a  power  denied  not  only  to  lay- 
men but  even  to  ministers  of  all  other  denominations.  But 
the  branches  of  the  Catholic  and  the  Apostolic  churches  do  not 
agree  among  themselves  as  to  the  authentic  channels  of  this 
mysterious  influence. 

To  the  Roman,  the  Anglican  Catholic  is  a  layman,  even 
though  he  be  a  prelate.  To  the  Anglican,  the  question  of  the 
recognition  or  non-recognition  of  Anglican  orders  is  something 
said  to  have  been  decided,  like  a  move  in  a  game,  or  in  party 
politics,  after  private  discussion  as  to  which  course  was  best 
calculated  to  benefit  one  side  and  to  damage  the  other.  "The 
subject,"  says  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  "appears  to  be  eminently  fitted 
for  such  treatment."  The  church  jealously  guards  its  own 
rites  and  privileges  and  denies  real  apostolic  authority  to  all 
save  those  whom  it  has  itself  ordained  and  to  that  extent 
claims  a  monopoly  of  the  Grace  of  God. 

Recently  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America  by  an  almost 
unanimous  action  of  its  ministry  appealed  to  the  House  of 
Bishops  for  a  ruling  that  would  exclude  from  its  pulpits  all 
other  "so-called"  Christians  because  "separated  from- the  unity 
of  God's  church."  Their  intrusion  is  pronounced  as  "con- 
trary to  the  fundamental  and  divine  constitution  of  Christ's 
Holy  Catholic  Church."  This  is  only  one  indication  that  that 
intolerance  which  has  been  the  bane  of  Christianity  for  cen- 
turies has  not  yet  died  out. 

The  task  which  the  workers  for  church  unity  must  face 
is  a  tremendous  one.  It  involves  not  only  a  compromise  of 
religious  belief  or  what  is  termed  orthodox  doctrine ;  but  sub- 
mission to  one  supreme  jurisdiction.  It  necessitates  an  agree- 
ment in  what  constitutes  the  validity  of  minsterial  orders,  in 
discipline  and  ritual ;  in  geographical  unity  as  the  one  Catholic 
or  Universal  Church ;  in  a  historic  unity  based  on  apostolic 
succession;  in  the  acceptance  of  the  executive  function  of  the 

279 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

historical  Episcopate  and  the  modes  and  forms  of  ecclesias- 
tical organization.  Concerning  all  these  matters  the  past  is  a 
record  of  dissension  and  discord;  the  present  offers  little  or 
no  hope  of  a  reversal  of  the  past  experience  of  the  church. 

Undoubtedly  Dr.  Brown  is  right  in  declaring  that  the  prob- 
lem is  one  that  concerns  itself  with  the  nature  and  constitution 
of  the  church  as  a  permanent  organism  in  society  or  as  to  the 
forms  in  which  the  Christian  faith  can  best  be  presented  to  our 
age.  But  in  what  direction  shall  we  look  for  the  solution  of 
this  problem? 

Is  the  Apostolic  Church  to  be  erected  into  the  perfect  and 
permanent  model  which  all  future  Christian  churches  ought  to 
copy  and  reproduce,  or  are  we  to  take  the  Christian  Church 
of  later  centuries  as  representative  of  what  Christianity  stands 
for?  If  the  former,  how  shall  the  model  be  defined;  if  the 
latter,  shall  it  be  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  or  must  we  turn 
to  Protestantism?  If  church  unity  involves  a  question  of 
polity,  shall  it  be  the  polity  of  Rome  or  Geneva,  or  that  of 
the  Anglican  or  the  Independent  churches?  Shall  it  be  Papal, 
Episcopal  or  Presbyterian  polity,  or  shall  the  political  system 
of  church  government  be  Monarchiat,  Aristocratical  or  Re- 
publican? How  shall  we  dispose  of  the  question  as  to  the 
validity  of  minsterial  orders?  Shall  the  Presbyterian  con- 
ception be  held  that  the  church  consists  of  the  body  of  the 
members  and  that  the  ministry  holds  no  powers  except  those 
which  are  delegated  to  it  from  the  church  at  large?  Or  shall 
the  claim  be  accepted  that  the  Roman  Church  ministry  or 
priesthood  is  in  possession  of  special  powers  and  graces  which 
the  laity  receive  only  by  means  of  the  ministry ;  that  Rome  has 
sole  authority,  by  the  exercise  of  which  the  Protestant  Bishops 
of  the  Church  of  England  were  deposed  by  the  Roman  Church 
and  their  authority  to  ordain,  and  have  never  since  been  recog- 
nized by  the  Roman  Church?  Which  of  the  different  types 
or  parties  composing  Christendom  most  fully  represents  the 

280 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

ideal  Church  of  Christ  as  to  doctrine,  administration,  disci- 
pline and  ritual?  Which  is  the  most  able  to  create  order,  to 
exercise  and  develop  the  noblest  life,  or  in  other  words,  is  most 
truly  Catholic? 

Here  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  asserts  its  claims  to  pre- 
eminence. It  is  the  heir  by  unbroken  descent  to  the  Catholic 
Church  of  the  second  century.  It  maintains  its  unity  with  the 
Appstles  by  historic  succession,  a  unity  which  has  remained 
unbroken  throughout  the  centuries.  It  claims  to  be  the  one 
Church  of  Christ,  instituted,  governed  and  inspired  by  God, 
secured  from  the  moment  of  creation  till  now  in  continuous 
being  and  activity  by  the  orders,  instruments,  symbols,  and 
sacraments,  that  are  the  conditions  of  God's  presence  and  the 
media  of  God's  grace. 

Episcopalianism,  on  the  other  hand,  insists  upon  its  claims 
to  Apostolic  succession  and  the  validity  of  its  orders.  It  holds 
tenaciously  to  the  principle  that  as  the  one  Church  of  Christ 
it  possesses  the  divine  mission  for  man's  salvation ;  and  seeks 
to  exclude  all  other  so-called  Christians  from  its  pulpits,  be- 
cause "separated  from  the  unity  of  God's  Church." 

The  conclusion  arrived  at  by  Dr.  Briggs,  is,  that  the  path- 
way to  reunion  is  through  a  constitutional  papacy.  But  the 
Roman  policy  is  already  one  of  unlimited  jurisdiction  and  ab- 
solute submission,  and  as  Dr.  Briggs  is  forced  to  admit,  the 
question  is  not  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope,  but  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Curia,  of  the  Black  Pope,  and  the  Red  Pope,  and  the 
little  popes  of  every  color  and  shape.  These  administer  the 
affairs  of  the  church  with  an  arbitrariness  and  tyranny  that  the 
popes  themselves,  owing  to  their  more  serious  responsibilities, 
would  not  think  of  doing.  These  lesser  dignitaries  have  prac- 
tically substituted  themselves  for  the  person  of  the  Pontiff  and 
are  clamorously  forcing  their  will  upon  the  church.  Not  only 
so,  but  the  Curia  is  antiquated  in  its  methods  as  well  as  its 
organization  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  divine  consti- 

281 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

tution  of  the  church.  It  is  well  within  the  authority  of  the 
Pope  to  transform  these  administrations  and  methods,  mod- 
ernize them  and  make  them  more  efficient.  But  thus  far  the 
Pope  is  the  creature  rather  than  the  ruler  of  the  counsellors 
who  compose  the  Curia. 

According  to  Archbishop  Ireland's  views  of  the  office,  "The 
Pope  is  the  supreme  master,  and  last  resort,  and  so  he  will  ever 
remain."  If  this  statement  is  correct,  we  may  well  agree  with 
Dr.  Briggs,  that  the  Pope  is  essentially  an  absolute  sovereign, 
with  no  one  on  earth  to  check  his  will ;  he  may  be  a  Gregory 
the  Great  or  he  may  be  a  Borgia.  But  even  in  Italy  and  in 
France  there  are  voters  who  regard  clericism  as  the  great 
enemy  of  the  people,  and  the  Roman  hierarchy  as  the  deadly 
foe  which  must  be  overthrown  at  all  hazards  and  every  cost. 

The  Roman  Curia  are  doing  all  in  their  power  to  stir  up 
strife  all  over  the  Christian  world  with  a  madness  which  is  the 
sure  precursor  of  ruin. 

"They  have  issued  a  new  syllabus  of  errors  and  an  encyclical 
against  modernism;  they  propose  a  new  inquisition;  they  are 
hurrying  on  the  canonization  of  Pius  IX;  they  are  even  pro- 
posing another  infallible  dogma,  the  assumption  of  the  Virgia, 
and  a  recalling  of  the  Vatican  Council  to  enhance  still  further 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  to  protect  it  from  the  supposed  en- 
croachments of  modern  states.  Pius  IX.  by  his  arbitrary  meas- 
ures brought  on  the  destruction  of  the  temporal  power  of 
papacy ;  Pius  X.  is  on  the  way  to  still  more  serious  results. 

"The  Curia  embued  with  the  spirit  of  falsehood  and  de- 
lation, the  spirit  of  denomination  and  persecution;  the  spirit 
of  avarice  and  greed,  the  spirit  of  immobility  and  reaction ;  all 
these  evil  spirits  are  now  so  powerful  in  the  Curia  as  to  over- 
awe and  control  such  a  devout  and  high-minded  man  as  Pius 
X.  The  Curia  is  determined  to  resist  and  overcome  any  and 
every  effort  for  reform.  It  does  not  wish  the  reunion  of 
Christendom,  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Christian  Church,  but 


CHURCH    UNITY- IS   IT   ATTAIN  ABLET 

simply  and  alone  a  body  that  will  be  submissive  without  ques- 
tion to  its  domination  in  doctrine  and  life,  not  only  by  external 
obedience  of  conformity  but  by  internal  obedience  of  a  sub- 
missive conscious  and  enslaved  intellect. 

"At  no  time  in  the  history  of  Christianity  were  the  claims 
of  the  Roman  and  the  Episcopal  Church  as  a  corporate  and 
divinely  ordained  church,  having  a  professional  monopoly  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  so  thoroughly  denied  by  the  thinking  world. 
The  special  and  exclusive  character  of  its  ecclesiastical  priest- 
hood as  instruments  and  vehicles  of  divine  mercy,  the  cere- 
monial conveyance  of  the  divine  influences  from  one  human  be- 
ing to  another  by  the  imposition  of  hands,  are  claims  that  are 
fast  losing  their  hold  upon  a  constantly  growing  body  of  both 
educated  and  uneducated  people,  who  care  less  and  less  for  out- 
ward and"  visible  forms  of  religion,  and  less  for  a  priesthood 
which  has  proven  its  uselessness  as  an  intermediary  between 
God  and  man."  ^ 

We  may  concede  that  Catholicism  had  its  place  in  an  age 
when  men  were  oppressed  by  hard  grinding  labor  in  order  to 
win  a  livelihood,  and  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  they  had 
not  sufficient  energy  of  mind  to  weigh  or  master  the  deeper 
mysteries  of  life  and  so  were  prepared  to  allow  either  author- 
ity to  affirm  their  faith  or  criticism  to  dissolve  it. 

**But,  if  Catholicism  claims  to  be  the  one  real  sufficient  and 
relevant  form  of  the  Christian  religion  then  the  truth  must 
be  spoken.  Not  in  and  through  it,  is  religion  to  be  realized  in 
an  age  of  thought,  in  a  world  of  freedom,  progress,  order,  and 
activity.  Its  doctrines  of  authority  and  the  church  is  a  direct 
provocative  to  skepticism,  its  idea  of  religion  is  an  impoverish- 
ment of  the  ideal  that  came  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

"Faith  can  come  by  its  rights  only  as  it  fulfils  its  duties  to 
reason.  And  the  church  that  alone  has  the  right  to  live,  is  the 
church  that,  by  finding  in  God  the  most  humanity,  most  fills 

^  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs  in  Church  Unity. 

283 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

humanity  with  God ;  and  so  works  for  the  establishment  of  that 
Kingdom  which  was  founded  by  the  Son,  and  is  governed  by 
the  Father  of  Man/'  * 

II. 

If  Roman  CathoHcism  fails  to  furnish  a  satisfactory  or  per- 
manent church  organism  in  society  for  the  realization  of  the 
religion  of  Christ,  where  shall  we  find  the  true  basis  of  church 
unity?  Shall  it  be  the  dictum  of  council  or  creed,  or  shall  we 
find  the  doctrine,  ritual  and  administration  methods  of  any  one 
particular  Protestant  Church  an  acceptable  basis  of  agreement  ? 
If  so,  which  one  of  the  215  sects  and  parties, shall  be  taken  as 
the  true  type  and  symbol  of  the  one  universal  Church  of 
Christ  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  does  any  one  of  the  ecclesiastical 
organizations  comprising  organized  Christendom,  correspond 
with  the  organization  of  the  church  of  the  New  Testament? 
Furthermore,  was  the  breaking  up  of  the  Church  of  Christ  into 
a  number  of  diflFerent  parties,  sects,  or  groups  in  the  same  city 
ever  dreamed  of  in  the  second  century? 

Church  unity  based  on  agreement  as  to  any  particular 
church's  idea  of  government  and  discipline  can  hardly  be  con- 
sidered attainable  so  long  as  there  exist  such  serious  discords 
and  disagreement  as  to  doctrine  and  worship  and  such  irrecon- 
cilable differences  as  we  find  among  Protestant  denominations. 
Question  of  religious  authority,  certainty  and  infallibility,  are 
difficult  and  delicate  problems  to  deal  with,  and  they  are  in  a 
more  unsettled  condition  to-day  than  ever. 

The  entire  controversy  between  Roman  Catholics  and 
Protestants  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Christian  ministry  and  the 
true  doctrine  of  the  eucharist  is  no  nearer  settlement  than 
when  the  Protestant  Reformation  began.  For  this  reason  the 
futility  of  all  efforts  for  organic  church  unity  becomes  more 
apparent  with  every  passing  year.    And  what  is  more,  no  ques- 

^  Catholicism,  Roman  and  Anglican,  page  204. 

284 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

tion  of  union  or  of  adaptation  can  be  entertained  by  those  who 
regard  a  foreign  potentate  and  a  foreign  conclave  as  supreme 
authority  and  fount  of  inspiration.  Nothing  short  of  sub- 
mission and  conversion  will  suit  Rome. 

A  careful  study  of  the  volume  on  ''Church  Unity"  fails  to 
disclose  any  clear  idea  as  to  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the 
church  as  a  permanent  organization  in  society.  As  the  result 
of  exhaustive  study  and  research  I  find  Dr.  Briggs  simply  giv- 
ing expression  to  the  idea  or  the  hope  that  some  day,  in  some 
way,  the  Papacy  will  be  so  reformed  as  to  correspond  with 
Jesus  Christ's  ideal,  and  be  so  transformed  as  to  make  it  the 
executive  head  of  a  universal  church.  "When  the  reunion  of 
Qiristendom  shall  eventually  take  place,"  says  he,  with  un- 
shaken faith  in  its  possibility,  "the  imperial  Papacy  will  doubt- 
less become  a  limited  monarchy  without  impairing  the  succes- 
sion, or  the  essential  nature  of  the  Papacy  as  the  supreme 
jurisdiction  of  the  church  and  the  unity  of  the  organism  will 
find  expression  in  the  executive  function  of  the  historic  episco- 
pate." 

Nevertheless  Protestantism  is  built  on  the  right  of  private 
judgment  and  the  right  of  appeal  from  the  Pope  to  Christ. 
The  Protestant  reformers  separated  from  the  Church  of 
Rome  on  question  of  dogma  and  institution,  and  followed  the 
authority  of  their  own  conscience  and  the  Holy  Scripture. 
Will  their  followers  now  accept  the  Roman  dogma  and  its  su- 
preme authority  in  all  matters  of  faith  and  morals? 

Dr.  Brigg's  conclusion  flies  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that 
the  representative  principle  has  little  or  no  influence  at  present 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  world ;  that  the  Papacy  has  absorbed 
into  itself  the  authority  of  councils  and  of  the  people  also,  and 
so  has  become  the  most  absolute  despotism  on  earth,  more  ab- 
solute in  its  government  than  the  Czar  of  Russia  or  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey;  that  the  recent  decision  of  the  Papal  commission 
under  the  lead  of  incompetent  divines  against  the  sure  results 

285 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

of  modern  Biblical  criticism  presents  clear  evidence  of  the  in- 
tolerance of  modern  Roman  Scholasticism.  There  is  already 
one  supreme  Judicatory  in  Rome  guarded  by  venerable  canon 
law,  and  independent  of  civil,  social,  political  and  ecclesiastical 
influences;  nevertheless,  it  has  over  and  over  again  lost  the 
confidence  of  the  world  by  its  unjust  and  iniquitous  decisions. 

III. 
If  it  be  difficult  and  dangerous  to  seek  a  union  of  Protes- 
tantism it  is  a  still  more  serious  undertaking  to  bring  about  a 
reunion  of  Protestantism  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  a 
condition    precedent    to    the    unity    of    entire    Christendom. 

''Against  such  a  proposal,"  as  Dr.  Briggs  admits,  "the 
hereditary  antagonism  and  dogmatic  hostility  of  Protestantism 
burst  into  a  flame  of  opposition.  The  wrongs  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  Rome  are  recalled.  Puritan  and  Huguenot,  Dutch 
and  German  Reformed,  cry  out  against  priest  and  prelate.  The 
dogmatic  hostility  to  Rome  aroused  by  the  action  of  the  Vat- 
ican Council  decreeing  Papal  Infallibility  rises  to  a  white  heat 
at  the  suggesting  of  consolidation  and  the  acceptance  of  the 
claims  of  the  Papacy  as  the  infallible  head  of  Christ's  Church." 

One  may  well  wonder  that  Dr.  Briggs  has  the  courage  to 
advocate  the  reunion  of  Christendom  on  the  basis  of  the  Pap- 
acy, since  he  finds  in  a  survey  of  the  history  of  Christ's  Church 
plain  evidence  that  the  disruption  of  the  church  has  been  due, 
in  the  main,  to  the  intolerable  tyranny  of  the  appellate  judica- 
tories in  the  church.  But  there  can  be  no  church  unity  without 
unity  in  appellate  jurisdiction,  and  as  no  way  has  been  pointed 
as  yet  whereby  limitations  can  be  established  which  will  make 
it  impracticable  that  there  should  be  a  recurrence  of  the  in- 
tolerable injustice  and  tyranny  under  which  our  fathers  suf- 
fered, what  hope  is  there  of  a  reunion  of  Christendom  along 
the  line  which  Dr.  Briggs  suggests? 

In  the  canon  law  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  there  is 
what  is  known  as  the  Lateran  Council  Degree  which  is  guarded 

286 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS  IT   ATTAINABLE? 

against  in  the  English  Church  by  the  oath  of  King's  Sov- 
ereignty, administered  to  deacons.  It  furnishes  an  illuminating 
instance  of  the  depth  and  bitterness  of  the  antagonism  devel- 
oped between  the  two  churches  over  this  very  question  of 
jurisdiction.  Here  is  the  wording  of  the  Lateran  Council  De- 
gree: 

''Let  the  secular  powers,  whatever  offices  they  may  exercise 
exterminate  from  the  territories  under  their  jurisdic- 
tion heretics  of  all  kinds,  marked  out  by  the  church 

But  if  any  temporal  ruler,  being  required  and  admonished  by- 
the  church,  shall  neglect  to  purge  his  land  from  this  heretical 
filth,  let  him  be  bound  to  the  chain  of  excommunication  by  the 
Metropolitan  and  other  Bishops  of  the  province.  And  if  he 
shall  disdain  to  make  satisfaction  within  a  year,  let  this  be 
signified  to  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  that  he  may  declare  the  vas- 
sals of  that  ruler  henceforth  released  from  their  allegiance, 
and  may  offer  the  land  to  occupation  by  Catholics,  who  having 
exterminated  the  heretics,  may  possess  it  in  peace  and  preserve 
it  steadfast  in  the  Faith." 

And  here  is  the  counter-irritant  in  the  form  of  the  oath  of 
the  King's  sovereignity.  If  it  is  lacking  in  precision  and  com- 
pleteness, it  was  evidently  from  no  lack  of  intent  on  the  part 
of  those  responsible  for  the  formulations  which  it  contains : 

"I,  A.  B.,  do  swear  that  I  do,  from  my  heart,  abhor,  detest 
and  abjure  as  impious  and  heretical  that  damnable  Doctrine  and 
Position  that  Princes  excommunicated  or  deprived  by  the 
Pope,  or  any  authority  of  the  See  of  Rome,  may  be  deposed  or 
murdered  by  their  subjects,  or  any  other  whatsoever.  And  I  do 
declare  that  no  foreign  Prince,  Person,  Prelate,  State  or  Po- 
tentate hath,  or  ought  to  have,  any  jurisdiction,  power,  supe- 
riority, pre-eminence  or  authority,  ecclesiastical  or  spiritual, 
within  this  realm.    So  help  me  God." 

Little  prospect  here  for  the  acceptance  of  the  Papacy  as 
the  head  of  the  Universal  Church !  But  how  is  this  stumbling 
block  to  be  removed?  Which  side  is  likely  to  be  the  first  to 
yield  its  position — the  Roman  Church  or  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land? 

287 


^  ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

If  we  turn  to  the  Church  of  England,  the  English  Acts  of 
Uniformity,  made  in  the  interest  of  maintaining  the  unity  of 
the  church  and  of  destroying  schism  of  every  kind,  have  been 
for  three  hundred  years  the  curse  of  the  British  nation.  They 
have  produced  a  most  grievous  confusion  of  doctrine  and  wor- 
ship in  the  Church  of  England  and  a  serious  crisis  over  these 
three  ceremonies,  viz. :  the  use  of  lights  in  processions,  the 
use  of  incense  and  the  reservation  of  the  holy  sacrament.  As 
the  result  of  partizan  interpretation,  the  greater  part  of  the 
British  nation  has  been  excluded  from  the  great  mother 
church.  The  Puritan  party  was  constrained  to  conformity; 
the  result  we  see  in  the  non-conforming  churches.  An  agon- 
izing struggle  has  been  going  on  to  maintain  unity  in  the 
Church  of  England.  This  has  been  complicated  by  the  struggle 
of  the  Anglo-Catholic  party  to  unite  with  the  Church  of  Rome, 
and  of  the  Protestant  party  to  unite  with  the  Presbyterian  and 
non-conforming  communions,  a  struggle  which  has  increased 
rather  than  lessened  in  intensity  and  which  threatens  to  dis- 
rupt the  church. 

Lack  of  unity  among  the  several  great  denominations  of 
Christendom,  is  paralleled  by  lack  of  unity  among  separated 
denominations  or  parts  of  the  Christian  Church.  Differences 
and  disputes  as  to  religious  belief  or  as  to  its  expression  in  re- 
ligious symbols  or  creeds  or  forms  of  worship,  and  the  total 
failure  to  arrive  at  a  consensus  as  to  Christian  doctrine  upon 
which  the  churches  may  all  stand  in  true  Christian  unity  has 
resulted  in  a  lamentable  decay  of  religious  interest  on  the  part 
of  the  layman.  Divided  Christianity  still  remains  guilty  of 
the  sin  of  continued  and  multiplying  schism. 

The  Roman  Church  shares  in  this  guilt.  It  still  maintains 
its  claims  of  an  absolute  Papacy  which  is  subversive  of  the  his- 
toric, episcopate  and  destructive  of  the  original  democracy  of 
the  church.  As  Dr.  Newman  Smyth  has  strikingly  said,  "in 
so  doing  it  sins  against  the  Holy  Spirit  of  liberty,  while  on  the 

288 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

other  hand,  the  absolute  independence  of  the  different  Protes- 
tant denominations  is  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Com- 
munion." Strifes  and  contentions  still  continue  a  distinctively 
prominent  feature  of  religious  history. 


IV. 

Orthodox  Christianity  has  had  centuries  in  which  to  com- 
pose the  religious  differences  of  its  different  branches,  in  which 
to  demonstrate  the  healing  power  of  the  gospel  and  to  bring 
peace  on  the  earth.  It  has  failed  to  accomplish  this  work;  it 
is  fast  losing  its  usefulness,  and  its  power  as  an  evangelizing 
force  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Church  unity  is  no 
nearer  attainment  than  is  the  accomplishment  on  the  part  of 
organized  Christianity  of  the  mission  which  Jesus  gave  to  his 
followers.  The  rivalries  and  efforts  for  extension  carried  on 
by  competing  churches,  the  enormous  waste  of  church  funds 
in  needless  duplication  of  churches  and  the  excess  cost  of 
maintenance  still  continue  as  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of 
a  divided  and  sectarian  Christianity. 

Multitudes  of  Christians  would  be  glad  to  witness  the  re- 
union of  the  discordant  elements  of  Christendom  into  the  one 
visible  militant  Church  of  Christ.  Thus  far,  this  has  seemed  a 
roseate  dream  to  be  realized  in  the  golden  dawn  of  the  millen- 
nial age.  The  highest  honor  is  due  the  noble  men  who  have 
zealously,  unselfishly  and  courageously  sought  to  advance  the 
cause  of  church  unity.  Nevertheless,  the  means  proposed  have 
been  only  tentative,  palliative  and  temporary.  There  has  been 
a  lamentable  inability  to  grasp  the  phases  of  the  problem  and  to 
propose  a  single,  practical,  thoroughly  workable  plan  or  ac- 
ceptable basis  upon  which  the  churches  of  Christendom  can 
come  together. 

We  may  talk  about  overcoming  the  discords  and  divisions 

289 


'ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

which  obtain  among  the  various  religious  denominations  of  the 
Christian  world;  we  may  hope  and  pray  and  dream  and  labor 
for  church  unity  from  now  until  the  crack  of  doom,  but  until 
the  church  as  a  whole  realizes  in  every  fibre  of  its  organism 
that  church  unity  can  be  brought  into  being  only  through  a 
concerted,  representative  and  authoritative  action  on  the  part 
of  all  the  great  religious  denominations  of  Christendom,  all 
thoroughly  united  for  this  one  purpose,  the  peace  and  concord 
of  organized  Christianity  will  continue  to  remain  "a  divine 
vision  of  possibility,"  not  a  divine  realization. 

But  suppose  Protestantism  takes  upon  itself  to  issue  a  call 
to  the  various  religious  denominations  of  the  Christian  world 
to  send  duly  accredited  representatives  to  a  grand  parliament 
of  Christianity  whose  deliberations  and  conclusions  shall  be 
authoritative  and  binding  upon  all,  thereby  initiating  a  move- 
ment which  will  bring  about  a  reunion  of  the  different  branches 
and  sects  now  dividing  Christendom. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  Roman  Curia,  Protestantism  is  a  schism, 
a  falling  away  from  the  one  Holy  Catholic  Church.  Rome 
would  meet  its  call  for  an  Ecumenical  council  to  formulate  a 
basis  for  church  unity  with  the  caustic  reminder  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  the  one  Church  of  Christ  of  which 
St.  Peter  is  the  vicar  of  Christ;  that  it  has  maintained  an  un- 
broken succession  from  St.  Peter  for  the  last  seventeen  cen- 
turies. The  Church  of  Rome  insists  that  all  that  is  necessary 
to  bring  about  the  unity  of  Christendom  is  for  Protestantism 
to  purge  itself  of  the  sin  of  separation;  that  thus  only  can  the 
peace  and  concord  of  the  Church  of  Christ  which  was  rudely 
broken  by  the  Protestant  reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
be  again  restored  to  the  world.  "The  Church  of  Rome  re- 
mains to-day  the  one  single,  sacred  and  secular  common- 
wealth," says  Father  Benson,  "which  has  faced  the  revolutions 
and  the  whirling  religions  of  the  West  and  has  survived  with 

290 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

a  continuity  so  unshaken  that  not  one  of  her  enemies  can  dis- 
pute it,  and  an  authority  which  they  can  only  resent."  ^ 

On  the  other  hand  "Protestantism  as  it  stands  to-day,"  de- 
clares the  Rev.  Dr.  Newman  Smyth,  ''has  lost  authority  over 
human  life  as  represented  in  the  community  and  the  family; 
it  has  lost  influence  over  vast  areas  of  thought.  Religious  edu- 
cation is  null;  religious  thinking  in  pulpit  and  pew  is  a  lost 
art."  "Furthermore,"  he  continues,  "Protestantism  is  gradu- 
ally ceasing  to  be  regarded  as  a  final  and  permanent  condition 
of  religious  thought.  The  world  no  longer  seeks  to  excuse  it- 
self for  non-compliance  with  its  sacred  tenets,  wherein  truth  is 
treated  as  if  it  were  a  divine  word  that  needed  to  be  solemnized 
by  councils  and  crystallized  into  dogmas  and  theological  formu- 
las. Its  terms  are  too  narrow  and  dogmatic  and  irrational  to 
be  accepted  as  a  basis  for  the  world's  redemption." 


V. 

While  Dr.  Briggs  fails  to  offer  any  satisfactory  explaiia- 
tion  as  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  church  as  a  "perman- 
ent organism"  in  society,  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  construct 
a  new  religious  order  or  formulate  the  discipline,  doctrine  and 
administrative  features  of  an  ideal  Christian  Church  as  an 
organized  institution  would  call  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest 
type  of  religious  constructive  statesmanship.  After  twenty- 
five  years'  study  of  the  subject  the  best  that  Dr.  Briggs  can  do 
is  to  suggest  a  "Constitutional  Papacy" — a  sort  of  limited 
monarchy  with  a  written  constitution.  But  how  could  such  a 
constitution  be  formed?  Are  its  provisions  to  be  formulated 
by  the  counsellors  of  the  Pope  who,  entrenched  in  Rome,  as 
Dr.  Briggs  observes,  and  perpetuating  themselves  from  genera- 

^  Father  Benson  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  "The  Coming 
Catholic  Revival." 

291 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

tion  to  generation,  "are  now  as  they  have  ever  been,  the  petty- 
tyrants  of  the  CathoHc  world."  ^  Would  the  Pope  consent  to 
the  calling  of  a  council  for  this  purpose?  How  would  it  be 
possible  to  define  the  doctrines  of  faith,  the  methods  of  wor- 
ship, the  administrative  methods,  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
church,  and  the  restrictions  to  be  thrown  about  the  Papacy,  in 
a  form  that  would  be  satisfactory  to  both  Protestants  and  Ro- 
man Catholics  ?  Would  not  the  Roman  Church  be  certain  to  re- 
sent any  curtailment  of  the  prerogatives  or  impairment  of  its 
primary  and  authoritative  rule  and  domination  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  after  these  centuries  of  contention  and 
separation,  would  Protestantism  consent  to  sacrifice  its  prin- 
ciples of  religious  freedom  of  conscience  and  worship,  or  to 
surrender  its  sonship  to  God  for  the  bondage  of  Papal  abso- 
lutism, which  in  the  person  of  the  present  Pope  Pius  X.  is 
more  absolute  and  more  determined  than  ever  to  resist  all  ef- 
forts toward  reform?  Even  with  a  constitution  would  the 
Greek  and  the  Protestant  churches  concede  to  the  Curia  the 
final  right  of  interpreting  that  constitution?  Are  not  the  his- 
torical and  Biblical  rights  of  the  Episcopate  just  as  divine  and 
even  more  sacred  than  those  of  the  Pope?  Would  not  lawful 
checks  and  balances  have  to  be  devised  to  secure  to  the  three 
divinely  appointed  media  of  the  church  government  and  disci- 
pline their  valid  and  properly  adjusted  rights? 

But  the  Roman  Church  already  has  its  constitution.  The 
answer  of  the  Roman  Church,  in  the  words  of  Arch-Bishop 
Ireland,  is  emphatic  and  conclusive  on  this  point : 

"Christ  once  for  all  gave  a  constitution  to  the  Papacy,  that 
it  be  supreme;  the  constitution  given  by  Christ,  no  Pope,  no 
body  of  Bishops  can  alter.  Counsellors,  the  Pope  will  gather 
around  him;  vicars  and  delegates,  he  will  have  to  divide  with 
him  the  labors  of  his  office,  but  the  Supreme  Master  in  last 
resort  he  will  ever  remain.    The  great  duty  of  the  Greek  and 

*  Church  Unity,  Page  423. 

292 


CHURCH    UNITY— IS   IT   ATTAINABLE? 

the  Protestant  Church  is  to  withdraw  from  schism  and  seek 
sheher  within  the  fold  where  the  Master's  prayer  is  fulfilled 
that  they  may  be  "one  fold  and  one  shepherd." 

But  suppose  the  Pope  should  call  a  Council  in  the  interest 
of  church  unity!  How  would  it  be  possible  to  agree  upon  a 
constitution  which  would  represent  a  consensus  as  to  church 
doctrine,  creeds,  decrees,  governments,  discipline,  institution, 
worship,  sacraments,  apostolic  successor  etc.?  If  it  be  a  doc- 
trine of  faith  shall  the  Anti-Nicene  Creed  or  the  Nicene  Creed 
be  accepted  as  the  final  statement  of  Christian  Faith?  Was 
the  last  word  spoken  at  the  Synod  of  Dort  or  in  the  Formula 
of  Concord,  in  the  Westminster  Assembly,  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  or  in  the  Council  of  the  Vatican?  Would  not 
such  an  assemblage  only  accentuate  the  differences  and  di- 
visions of  Christendom  and  end  in  confusion  worse  con- 
founded? Are  we  not  forced  to  regard  the  attainment  of  the 
unity  of  Christendom  on  the  basis  propounded  by  Dr.  Briggs 
as  one  of  the  most  visionary  and  hopeless  undertakings  to 
which  the  mind  and  energies  of  man  was  ever  given? 

While  I  entertain  the  utmost  respect  and  even  admiration 
for  those  who  have  courageously  and  earnestly  labored  for  the 
reconciliation  and  reunion  of  the  discordant  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  consensus  of  opinion  in  the  main,  both  outside  and 
inside  church  lines,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  gather  it,  may 
be  summed  up  in  the  following  conclusions,  viz. : 

First,  that  the  problems  and  difficulties  involved  are  in- 
soluble. 

Second,  that  church  unity  is  too  visionary  to  be  within 
range  of  the  attainable. 

Third,  that  those  who  are  trying  to  bring  it  about  are 
simply  "Coquetting  with  the  impossible. 

These  conclusions  appear  to  be  fully  justified  by  the  facts 
in  the  case.  Dr.  Briggs  expresses  the  hope  that  in  some  way 
the  whole  Christian  world  will  rally  about  Christ  our  Lord, 

293 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

and  a  successor  of  St.  Peter,  who  will  be  as  near  to  Christ  as 
St.  Peter  was  and  as  truly  a  representative  of  the  Lord  and 
Master,  as  Shepherd  of  the  flock  of  Christ  and  the  Executive 
head  of  a  reunited  Christianity.  This  hope  will  be  very  much 
nearer  fulfillment  if  the  rally  is  around  Christ,  as  the  supreme 
authority  in  the  church,  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life,  and  who 
has  promised  to  be  with  His  followers  always  ''even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world." 

Christ's  followers  are  constituted  **  Kings  and  Priests  unto 
God."  The  only  successors  to  St.  Peter,  which  God  requires 
are  those  who,  like  Peter,  will  confess  Christ,  and  who  can 
say,  as  Peter  did,  "Thou  are  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God."  Upon  this  confession,  this  understanding  of  His  nature 
and  mission,  which  is  a  revelation,  not  of  flesh  and  blood  (hu- 
man doctrine  or  opinion),  but  of  the  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven,  will  Christ  build  the  invisible  Church  of  God,  to  be 
expressed  in  such  simplicity  of  outward  form,  or  means  of 
worship,  and  such  unity  of  faith  and  works  as  will  reflect 
the  spirit  and  truth  of  Christ  and  ultimate  in  the  complete  re- 
demption of  the  race. 


294 


IV. 

ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY. 

Its  Alternatives  as  to  Christian  Science. 

ORGANIZED  Christianity  has  three  alternatives,  viz.: 
either  to  oppose,  ignore  or  combine  with  the  Christian 
Science  movement.  Unfortunately,  none  of  these  alternatives 
furnishes  a  practical  or  satisfactory  solution  of  the  difficulties 
which  confront  the  orthodox  churches  and  threaten  their  dis- 
integration and  final  dissolution. 

In  olden  days  martyrs  laid  their  earthly  all  upon  the  altar 
of  sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  religious  or  scientific  progress. 
History  is  crowded  with  the  record  of  suffering;  of  old  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  has  been  the  seed  of  the  church  and  the 
cross,  "truth's  central  sign."  Prophets  have  been  rewarded 
with  stones ;  reformers  have  been  maligned  and  burned  at  the 
stake;  Jesus  was  executed  as  a  criminal  blasphemer.  The 
trials  which  these  encountered,  as  history  shows,  have  awaited 
in  some  form  every  pioneer  of  Truth  whose  every  advancing 
footstep  is  still  opposed  as  of  yore. 

"We  know  the  price  and  yet  our  gifts  we  strew. 
Our  life-blood  and  our  tears  to  feed  the  lamp 
God  orders  us  to  bear  in  front  of  you." 

In  this  age  ecclesiastical  or  orthodox  Christianity  finds  it- 
self shorn  of  the  power  of  Hfe  and  death.  We  have  passed 
the  period  of  physical  religious  intolerance;  nevertheless  the 
clerics  still  control  the  religious  and,  to  some  extent,  the  sec- 
ular press.  To-day,  as  in  by-gone  days,  the  cry  has  been  re- 
peated, "Crucify  him,  crucify  him." 

295 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Religious  writers,  who,  as  Paul  Sabatier  remarks,  "pose 
with  superb  insolence  as  the  appointed  guardians  of  ortho- 
doxy," it  is  to  be  hoped  will  some  day  achieve  that  Christian 
spirit  which  recognizes  all  good  men  as  brethren.  Meanwhile 
they  have  not  hesitated  to  place  the  founder  of  Christian 
Science  in  the  public  pillory  as  a  fit  subject  for  the  scorn  and 
derision  of  the  populace.  True,  there  have  been  some  in  this 
age  who  have  said  of  this  movement,  as  did  Gamaliel  of  old, 
"Let  them  alone:  for  if  this  counsel  be  of  men,  it  will  come 
to  naught:  but  if  it  be  of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow  it:  lest 
haply,  ye  be  found  even  to  fight  against  God."  The  clergy  can 
now  realize  that  instead  of  opposing  and  denouncing  the  Chris- 
tian Science  movement  they  might  better  have  said:  "This 
awakening  is  of  God  and  must  be  accepted  as  His,"  not  dealt 
with  as  if  it  were  the  devil's. 

It  means  that  these  new  ideas  of  God  and  man  and  the  uni- 
verse, of  social  justice  and  human  rights  propounded  by  Chris- 
tian Science,  these  outreachings  for  a  larger  good,  are  all  of 
Christ;  it  means  that  men  are  getting  ready  to  understand  the 
idea  of  God's  kingdom.  Nevertheless,  Christian  Science  has 
had  to  pass  through  the  blazing  fires  of  modern  publicity, 
which,  like  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace,  have  been  heated  seven 
times  hot.  But  in  these  latter  days  opposition  to  Christian 
Science  has  largely  spent  its  force.  The  fires  of  persecution, 
for  lack  of  material  to  keep  up  the  flames,  have  mouldered  to 
ashes;  the  ingenuity  of  cruelty  has  exhausted  itself.  The 
campaign  waged  against  the  movement  and  its  founder  has 
become  so  intermittent  and  harmless  as  to  be  a  negligible  quan- 
tity, not  excepting  the  cannonading  occasionally  carried  on  by 
the  popgun  artillerists  of  Times  Square  and  Park  Row. 

II. 

But  since  Christian  Science  has  seemed  to  thrive  the  more 
it  is  persecuted,  and  it  has  now  become  evident  that  an  open 

296 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

and  aggressive  hostility  is  not  being  attended  with  satisfactory 
results,  will  organized  Christianity  decide  to  adopt  the  alter- 
native of  ignoring  the  movement? 

There  are  several  conclusive  reasons  why  it  cannot  well 
afford  to  do  so.  As  a  recent  writer  has  declared,  "Christian 
Science  is  too  thoroughly  unified  and  in  harmony  with  itself ; 
its  religious  therapeutics  are  too  soundly  anchored  in  a  sys- 
tem." It  is  a  movement  instinct  with  vitality;  its  Sabbath 
services  and  week-night  testimony  meetings  receive  a  support 
which  crowds  these  meetings  to  the  doors.  With  the  orthodox 
churches  of  to-day,  the  great  problem  is  to  get  people  to  come 
to  church  and  to  make  both  ends  meet  at  the  close  of  the  fiscal 
year.  With  the  Christian  Science  church  the  great  problem  is 
to  find  room  for  the  people  who  throng  to  its  services,  and 
collection  boxes  big  enough  to  hold  their  offerings  for  the 
support  of  the  movement. 

Christian  Science  claims  to  be  a  demonstrable  religion;  in 
common  parlance,  *'it  is  making  good."  Its  most  powerful 
propaganda  is  not  the  adventitious  aids  commonly  employed  in 
securing  a  church  following,  but  the  healing  work  of  a  body 
of  nearly  five  thousand  Christian  Science  practitioners,  which 
constitutes  an  appeal  to  the  sick  and  the  sorrowing  that  is  well- 
nigh  irresistible.  Furthermore,  it  is  the  only  well  known  and 
acknowledged  Christian  denomination  that  believes  and  accepts 
that  part  of  Christianity,  the  healing  of  the  sick,  as  the  nat- 
ural and  indispensable  phenomenon  of  religion  or  that  believes 
that  it  can  be  complied  with. 

A  church  which  is  of  comparatively  recent  birth,  which  has 
attained  a  membership  and  following  of  1,500,000  to  2,000,000; 
which  is  carrying  on  a  successful  ministry  of  relief  from  the 
bodily  and  spiritual  sufferings  of  mankind,  in  accordance  with 
Christ's  commands ;  which  has  been  building  new  churches  and 
establishing  new  societies  at  the  rate  of  two  for  every  consec- 

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ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

utive  week  during  the  past  19  years  must  be  reckoned  with  by 
organized  Christianity,  "and  will  be,"  says  a  brilliant  satirist, 
"when  it  is  too  late/' 

III. 

But  if  to  ignore  or  oppose  the  Christian  Science  movement 
has  been  of  no  avail,  is  a  combination  or  merger  of  interests 
within  the  range  of  possibility? 

We  are  living  in  an  age  of  consolidation.  In  its  larger 
aspects,  it  contemplates  not  only  the  organization  of  an  inter- 
national body  of  representatives  whose  decisions  and  action 
in  the  peaceful  settlement  of  controversies  between  nations 
would  be  recognized  and  accepted  as  the  final  determination 
thereof;  but  a  world-wide  federation  of  industrial  interests 
and  a  peaceful  reign  of  international  law,  that  will  make  for 
concord  and  harmony  among  all  nations;  an  internationalism 
which  is  not  only  the  dream  of  the  workman  or  the  theorist, 
but  the  ideal  of  the  statesman. 

"We  have  reached  a  point,"  says  Secretary  Knox,  in  an 
address  at  a  recent  commencement  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, on  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  American  diplomacy, 
"when  it  is  evident  that  the  future  holds  in  store  a  time  when 
wars  shall  cease ;  when  the  nations  of  the  world  shall  realize  a 
federation  as  real  and  vital  as  that  now  subsisting  between 
the  component  parts  of  a  single  state ;  when  by  deliberate  inter- 
national conjunction  the  strong  shall  universally  help  the 
weak,  and  when  the  corporate  righteousness  of  the  world  shall 
compel  unrighteousness  to  disappear  and  shall  destroy  the 
habitations  of  cruelty  still  lingering  in  the  dark  places  of  the 
earth.  This  is  'the  spirit  of  the  wide  world  brooding  on  things 
to  come.' 

"That  day  will  be  the  millennium,  of  course;  but  in  some 
sense  and  degree  it  will  surely  be  realized  in  this  dispensa- 
tion of  mortal  time." 

298 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

But,  as  Dr.  Newman  Smyth  well  remarks,  ** Shall  interna- 
tionalism come  on  apace  and  Catholicism  tarry  in  the  church?" 
Consolidation,  from  a  severely  practical  standpoint,  involves 
an  appraisal  of  the  temporal  and  spiritual  values  of  institu- 
tional Christianity,  or  in  other  words,  a  stock-taking  which 
expanding  knowledge  and  religious  progress  and  the  exigencies 
of  the  churches  may  well  justify,  apart  from  its  bearing,  upon 
any  proposition  looking  to  the  merger  of  religious  interests  on 
the  part  of  organized  Christianity. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  nearly  200  different  Prot- 
estant church  bodies,  ranging  in  membership  from  eight  souls 
to  eleven  millions.  Only  thirteen  of  these  bodies  have  a  mem- 
bership of  over  100,000.  The  combined  membership  of  all  the 
churches  equals  about  three-eighths  of  the  total  population  of 
this  country. 

From  Dr.  Waldron's  study  of  church  attendance  in  Boston 
it  appears  that  Protestantism  has  provided  in  that  city  for 
more  than  twice  the  number  of  sittings  than  are  ever  used  at 
any  one  time.  And  it  is  estimated  that  there  is  a  proportionate 
surplus  of  church  property  and  surplus  sittings  throughout 
the  United  States.  This  diminishing  interest  in  the  church  will 
increase  rather  than  lessen.  According  to  the  statistics  of 
the  Bureau  of  Census,  the  average  seating  capacity  for  the 
Protestant  denomination  is  three  times  the  average  member- 
ship in  each  organization.  The  figures  given  out  by  this 
bureau's  report  in  1906  as  to  the  value  of  church  property  in 
the  United  States  show  a  total  expenditure  of  $1,257,575,867, 
with  a  mortgage  incumbrance  of  $108,050,946.  This  latter 
sum  represents  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  churches'  property  holdings. 

In  estimating  the  value  of  this  church  property,  due  con- 
sideration must  be  given  not  only  to  its  mortgage  indebtedness, 
but  to  present  availability  and  up-to-date  convenience.  A  great 
deal  of  the  architecture  and  seating  arrangements,  heating  and 

299 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

ventilation  acoustics,  etc.,  of  the  orthodox  churches  is  of  an 
antiquated  type,  and  is  becoming  less  and  less  desirable  owing 
to  the  many  removal  changes  and  withdrawals.  This  is  true 
not  only  of  country  church  buildings,  but  those  in  the  city, 
where  there  are  at  present  probably  more  than  one  million 
Protestants  who  have  no  active  church  affiliations. 

Rev.  Dr.  George  R.  Van  de  Water,  Rector  of  St.  Andrews 
church,  speaking  of  the  serious  loss  of  membership  by 
removals  and  the  large  percentage  who  do  not  attend  church, 
finds  the  cause  in  a  destroying  indifference,  a  listless  lethargy, 
a  wicked  withdrawal  from  personal  participation  in  lifting 
the  load  and  bearing  the  burden.  ''Where,"  he  asks,  ''are  1,500 
bonafide  communicants  of  St.  Andrews  parish,  not  one  of 
whom  we  would  dare  erase  from  our  books?  What  has  be- 
come of  their  consciences  about  worship?" 

A  recent  writer,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Root,  has  made  a  somewhat 
elaborate  investigation  of  the  present  status  of  the  church 
property  belonging  to  organized  Christianity.  From  this  he 
draws  the  astounding  conclusion  that  there  are  50,000  churches 
in  the  land  "fit  only  to  burn."  The  facts  and  conditions  re- 
vealed by  this  writer  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Delineator  are 
startling.  "At  the  first  federal  council  of  the  churches  of 
Christ  in  America  a  speaker  told  of  one  place  with  a  popula- 
tion of  3,000  which  had  14  churches,  three  of  them  Presby- 
terian. Bishop  Earl  Cranston  of  the  Methodist  Church  re- 
ported a  village  of  less  than  1,000  with  six  pastors,  13  churches 
and  a  good  woman,  who  wanted  another. 

In  the  Independent  of  April  9,  1906,  Albert  J.  Kennedy  de- 
scribed a  Minnesota  "city"  of  1,347  inhabitants,  875  of  foreign 
parentage  and  472  of  American.  He  estimated  that  the  total 
number  of  possible  church  attendants  among  the  latter  was 
285 ;  and  the  actual  number  of  attendants  half  that  number. 
There  were  95  heads  of  families,  of  whom  not  more  than  50 
would  be  contributors,  and  capable  of  paying  in  to  the  support 

300 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

of  the  church  $30  per  annum  on  an  average.  The  $i,5cx>  which 
could  be  raised  and  the  total  attendance  might  be  sufficient 
to  maintain  one  church  but  not  more  on  a  normal  basis.  Yet 
here  were  to  be  found  four  American  churches  that  for  35 
years  had  received  on  an  average  $534  missionary  aid,  or  a 
total  of  $1 8,000.  Taking  the  entire  population,  there  were 
eight  denominations  and  seven  houses  of  worship  with  a  total 
valuation  of  $21,300,  of  which  $7,400  now  lies  absolutely  idle 
and  worthless.  The  article  called  forth  some  defense,  but  no 
denial,  of  the  situation." 

Another  writer  gave  these  facts  :  'T  began  my  ministry  in 
a  Kansas  town  of  600.  We  had  four  church  buildings,  six 
organizations,  seven  resident  preachers,  22  denominations  and 
very  little  religion.  We  are  playing  at  religious  tiddle-de-winks 
while  humanity  is  staggering  down  the  dark  ways  of  sin  and 
woe." 

IV. 

Any  proposition  which  looks  to  the  consolidation  or  merger 
of  the  various  religious  denominations  into  one  grand  church 
organic  unity,  such  as  took  form  and  became  visible  in  the 
earlier  days  of  Christianity  when  the  disciples  were  of  one 
mind,  must  of  necessity  involve  the  displacing  of  antiquated 
forms  and  methods  of  ecclesiastical  organization  by  newer  and 
more  efficient  methods  of  administration,  discipline  and  ac- 
tivity. 

In  the  industrial  world,  where  the  value  of  business  com- 
binations has  been  demonstrated  in  consolidations  of  gigantic 
scope  and  where  wonderful  achievements  have  been  brought 
about,  the  readjustment  of  manufacturing  plants  and  facil- 
ities and  the  introduction  of  improved  business  methods  of 
handling  and  the  marketing  the  product  of  the  mills  have  al- 
ways followed  such  merging  of  interests.  Old  mills  with  an- 
tiquated machinery  and  costly  methods  of  manufacture  have 

301 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

been  gradually  replaced  with  newer,  more  modern  and  scientific 
processes  of  production;  economies  are  introduced  here  and 
there,  leaks  and  wastes  are  stopped,  maintenance  costs  are 
carefully  studied,  newer  systems  of  accounting  and  organiza- 
tion are  brought  into  use  in  order  the  more  effectually  to  in- 
crease the  output  and  lower  the  cost  of  production,  thus  bring- 
ing about  the  great  desideratum  in  all  industrial  enterprises — 
the  minimum  cost  of  production — the  maximum  output — and 
the  largest  possible  increase  in  the  dividends  on  the  capital 
stock  of  the  corporation. 

This  process  is  not  regarded  as  a  painful  necessity  or  as 
involving  "much  sacrifice  and  a  lot  of  heroic  surgery."  On 
the  contrary,  every  constituent  concern  fortunate  enough  to  be 
included  in  the  consolidation  welcomes  these  changes  in  the 
line  of  increased  efficiency  and  increased  profits.  The  stock- 
holders cheerfully  surrender  certain  rights  and  privileges  of 
management  in  the  interest  of  lower  costs  and  quite  as  cheer- 
fully accept  their  share  of  the  enhanced  dividends  resulting 
therefrom — dividends  that  in  these  days  have  attained  high- 
water  mark.  But  when  it  comes  to  church  unity  or  church 
consolidation  the  Christian  world  refuses  to  accept  in  the  in- 
terest of  religious  harmony  and  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  what 
is  a  constant  accompaniment  of  industrial  consolidation. 
Christendom,  in  theory  at  least,  is  a  Christian  family  owning 
one  Shepherd,  professing  allegiance  to  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
yet  it  presents  the  spectacle  of  a  house  divided  against  itself. 

It  takes  nearly  two  hundred  different  parties  or  denomina- 
tions in  orthodox  Christianity  to  compass  or  express  their 
various  religious  beliefs  and  varying  ideas  on  matters  of  theo- 
logical doctrine,  ritual  and  ecclesiastical  organization.  The 
task  of  reconciling  these  differences  so  that  Christian  unity 
may  be  attained,  instead  of  growing  easier  becomes  more  and 
more  difficult  with  the  lapse  of  time.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
there  is  more  dissatisfaction  and  less  agreement  within  these 

302 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

religious  denominations  or  any  one  of  them  than  in  any  polit- 
ical party  or  all  the  five  political  parties  which  sought  ami- 
cably to  express  their  differences  at  the  last  presidential  elec- 
tion. And  the  lamentable  fact  remains  that  the  different 
branches  of  Christianity  which  refuse  to  surrender  or  com- 
pose their  religious  issues  or  differences  in  the  interest  of 
church  unity  and  the  cause  of  Christ  do  so  in  face  of  the  fact 
that  the  bulk  of  these  differences,  which  have  led  to  division, 
could  be  dropped  at  once  and  forever  without  depleting  any 
really  valuable  asset  of  Christianity.  That  sectarian  Chris- 
tianity cannot  get  together  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  unity  and 
of  Christian  power  and  influence  illustrates  how  far  short 
i*t  has  fallen  from  the  Spirit  and  Truth  of  Christ  or  from  that 
true  unity  of  religious  faith  which  St.  Paul  set  before  the 
Ephesian  Church  as  an  essential  element  in  Christian  char- 
acter. 

''Insistent  individualism,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "everywhere 
puts  itself  directly  athwart  the  path  of  progress."  How  this 
individualism  works  out  in  practice  the  following  additional 
facts  will  amply  illustrate.  According  to  the  statistics  com- 
piled by  Dr.  Carroll  there  are  200,022  Protestant  churches 
with  only  149,472  ministers  to  supply  the  pulpits  of  these 
churches.  In  other  words,  there  are  50,550  churches  which 
must  either  be  without  a  pastor  or  else  divide  a  minister's  time. 
Furthermore,  there  are  100,000  churches  which  are  too  small 
to  support  a  minister  and  are  maintained  only  by  receiving 
missionary  aid,  and  paying  the  pastor  a  starvation  salary. 
As  a  result  of  careful  investigation,  correspondence,  observa- 
tion and  comparison  of  statistics,  Dr.  Root  reaches  the  con- 
clusion that  half  the  churches  in  the  United  States  are  super- 
fluous and  that  consequently  half  the  church  buildings  are 
misplaced  and  are  practically  useless. 

"Granted  that  $500,000,000  is  sunk  in  needless  duplication 
of  houses  of  worship,"  says  Dr.  Root,  "there  is  probably  not 

303 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

a  dollar  more  expended  in  church  property  than  is  actually 
needed."  The  trouble  is  that  it  is  not  expended  to  meet  real 
needs.  Organized  Christianity  has  thus  been  guilty  of  wasting 
or  misplacing  this  enormous  sum  by  reason  of  religious  differ- 
ences, divisions  and  sectarianism. 

Other  wasteful  expenditures  are  chargeable  to  "insist- 
ent individualism."  After  the  churches  are  built  they  must 
be  supported.  The  needless  duplication  of  church  buildings 
involves  a  serious  economic  waste  which  amounts  to  the 
enormous  sum  of  at  least  $100,000,000  per  annum.  The  crying 
need  of  organized  Christianity,  from  the  practical  standpoint, 
is  the  cessation  of  this  needless  duplication  of  churches  and 
this  economic  waste  of  millions,  which  could  be  employed  to 
far  greater  advantage  in  the  spread  of  the  Gospel ;  and  the 
elimination  of  the  spirit  of  competition,  which  accounts  in 
large  measure  for  the  erection  of  so  many  unnecessary 
churches,  and  robs  many  communions  of  that  dominant  in- 
fluence which  is  imperatively  needed.  The  call  is  imperative 
for  a  consolidation  of  forces,  a  withdrawal  of  rival  ecclesia^;- 
tical  organizations  in  each  other's  territory  and  the  destruction 
of  the  tendency  to  strengthen  any  one  denominational  system 
for  the  sake  of  its  own  welfare  and  pride. 

How  this  spirit  operates  in  the  rivalries  and  contentions  of 
competing  denominations  is  seen  in  this  overproduction  of 
churches  in  almost  any  village,  city  or  township  that  may  be 
named.  Here  are  some  notable  instances :  In  one  town  there 
are  seven  churches  to  provide  for  a  total  population  of  3,000 
people.  In  one  of  the  smaller  cities  of  Massacliusetts  there 
may  be  found  no  less  than  81  Protestant  churches  and  to 
Roman  CathoHc  churches,  or  91  churches  for  a  population  of 
26,831,  one  church  for  every  296  inhabitants.  In  the  county 
there  are  no  less  than  30  superfluous  churches.  In  one  village 
five  churches  are  competing  for  the  support  of  a  township  of 
386.     In  one  town  five  churches  divide  an  ancient  town  fund 

304 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

left  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  and  the  religious  interests  of 
845  people ;  $250,000  is  wasted  by  planting  a  costly  church  of 
the  same  denomination  75  feet  from  another,  either  one  of 
which  is  ample  for  both  congregations.  Seventy-five  per  cent 
of  the  efforts  of  these  two  rival  churches  is  wasted  in  com- 
petition. Nor  is  this  all.  There  is  a  tremendous  paralysis  of 
moral  influence  by  this  rivalry  and  competition.  The  dupli- 
cation of  church  plants  is  worse  than  wasteful;  it  is  not  only 
wrong  economically,  but  religiously.  It  is  not  only  unworldly 
from  an  industrial  standpoint  but  unchristian,  it  prejudices  and 
embitters  the  injured  group  of  fellow  Christians,  and  es- 
tranges the  great  middle  class  from  the  churches. 

What  is  the  real  trouble  ?  You  can  define  it  in  one  word — 
religious  institutionalism. 

V. 

The  church  centers  its  spiritual  values  in  its  ministry,  its 
doctrines  and  its  religious  teachings.  It  has  its  scholastic  theo- 
logy, neatly  packed  and  parceled  in  dogma,  tied  with  red  tape 
and  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the  corporation ;  likewise  a  lot  of 
antiquated  text-books,  which  students  at  theological  schools  are 
protesting  against  as  ill-adapted  to  modern  thought  and  pro- 
gress and  a  waste  of  time  to  study  or  to  use  after  graduation. 

The  creeds  and  doctrines  of  organized  Christianity,  em- 
balmed in  book  form  and  taught  for  centuries  by  scholastic 
theologians,  are  badly  shop-worn,  out  of  fashion,  and  repu- 
diated by  the  masses.  They  can  only  be  considered  as  useless 
stock  in  trade.  These  volumes  merely  lumber  the  shelves  of 
the  theological  shops  and  might  well  be  relegated  to  the  scrap 
heap  or  to  that  ''Museum  of  Curios"  which  Prof.  James  has 
instituted  for  the  clumsy  devices  of  an  antiquated  philosophy. 

An  institutional  Christianity  which  relegates  heaven  to  a 
distant  and  uncertain  future  and  the  greater  part  of  the  human 
race  to  Hades;  that,  instead  of  fulfilling  the  healing  ministry 

305 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

committed  to  it  by  its  great  Founder,  refers  organic  diseases 
to  a  materialistic  profession,  and  functional  disorders  to  the 
Emanuel  clinic  for  treatment  by  "hypnotic  suggestion,"  and 
whose  preaching  services  do  not  hold  the  public,  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  a  desirable  acquisition  or  one  any  pro- 
gressive and  successful  religious  movement  could  use  to  ad- 
vantage. Before  reaching  a  position  where  overtures  might 
reasonably  be  made  looking  to  a  merger  or  consolidation  of 
religious  interests,  organized  Christianity  must  first  disburden 
itself  of  a  lot  of  dead  values  before  it  can  hope  to  be  a  power 
which  leads  men  forward  or  give  it  real  standing  as  a  re- 
ligious power  in  the  world. 

Jesus  established  a  society,  a  Christian  brotherhood,  free 
from  proscriptive  regulations.  He  made  no  attempt  to  hedge 
humanity  about  with  outward  restraints  or  restrictions  as 
though  the  reason,  the  heart  and  the  conscience  of  mankind 
could  not  be  trusted.  The  society  which  He  formed  was  one 
where,  instead  of  outside  rules,  an  internal  law  was  to  reign; 
its  members  were  to  live  in  the  Spirit  and  speak  the  Truth. 

"Organized  Christianity,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "clings  to 
the  old  interpretations  and  presentations;  it  is  still  closely 
wedded  to  its  old  ideals  or  idols."  While  the  world  has  been 
crying  for  love,  optimism  and  the  evolution  of  the  soul,  the 
churches  have  clung  to  the  old  teachings  of  fear,  and  original 
sin;  while  Christian  Science  has  been  crying  "Look  upward 
and  onward,"  the  old  pulpits  re-echo  the  antiquated  cry  "Look 
backward  and  downward."  Christian  Science  teaches  "You 
are  a  child  of  a  King,  made  in  the  image  of  your  Father,  and 
destined  to  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  which  is  within 
you" ;  the  orthodox  churches  continue  to  proclaim  "You  are  a 
worm  of  the  dust,  a  child  of  the  Devil,  conceived  in  iniquity 
and  begotten  in  depravity.  You  are  fit  only  for  eternal  dam- 
nation and  will  bum  in  Hell  unless  saved  by  Grace."  The 
orthodox  churches  picture  man  "as  standing,  cap  in  hand,  like 

306 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

a  mendicant,  begging  forgiveness  and  grace  which  he  does  not 
really  deserve,  but  which  he  still  hopes  for  through  Grace; 
Christian  Science  pictures  him  standing  as  a  son  before  his 
Father,  filled  with  a  belief  in  the  love  of  the  Divine  Parent 
and  asking  that  he  be  allowed  to  enter  into  his  divine  inherit- 
ance, his  natural  birthright. 

VI. 

It  would  be  quite  as  difficult  to  estimate  the  actual  value  of 
the  priesthood  and  the  ministerial  class  to  the  practice  of  re- 
ligion in  these  days  as  it  would  be  to  estimate  the  value  of 
church  property  or  for  the  church  to  reverse  its  doctrinal  po- 
sition. The  clergy,  as  an  official  adjunct  of  the  church,  has  no 
sanction  from  the  founder  of  Christianity;  it  possesses  no  vital 
elements  in  its  sermonizing  and  is  fast  becoming  a  useless  ap- 
pendage to  the  Christian  religion.  Christ  Jesus  created  no 
order  of  priesthood  to  which  any  man  could  belong  and  made 
no  use  of  any  term  that  would  imply  the  continuance  of  any 
ecclesiastical  function,  such  as  teaching  or  preaching,  bap- 
tizing, celebrating  the  eucharist  or  exercising  discipline. 

The  foundation  of  a  class  of  officers  standing  apart  from 
the  mass  of  the  Christian  community,  invested  with  the  at- 
tributes of  special  sanction  and  exercising  a  jurisdiction  which 
established  a  relation  of  subordination  between  the  clergy  and 
the  laity  was  no  part  of  the  life  or  ordering  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian church  and  has  no  foundation  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

A  ministry  which  rejects  the  healing  Gospel  of  Christ; 
which  is  working  under  the  belittling  burden  of  an  exhausted 
yet  authoritative  past;  which  comprises  many  anchorets  of 
the  study  "strained  by  mental  overproduction  and  morbid 
ideals,"  would  not  be  a  helpful  propaganda,  so  far  as  the 
Christian  Science  movement  is  concerned;  the  more  especially 
so,  since  mere  personal  opinions,  in  the  guise  of  the  traditional 
sermon,  are  not  now  in  demand  because  they  are  not  accom- 

307 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

plishing  the  purposes  for  which  religious  services  are  or  should 
be  held.  Not  only  so,  there  has  been  a  great  decay  of  faith 
in  the  priestly  conception  of  the  ministry  which  people  of  the 
present  day  decline  to  take  seriously.  They  are  tired  of  the 
traditional  style  of  preaching.  Flowery  sermons  and  fine  ora- 
tions savor  tpo  much  of  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbals. 
They  have  lost  their  hold  upon  the  masses  and  presage  a  new 
order  wherein  the  ministerial  class  once  so  powerful  will 
gradually  pass  out  of  existence. 

There  is  a  further  considerz^tion  aflfecting  the  value  of  the 
ministerial  class  in  any  combination  with  Christian  Science. 
It  would  have  to  reverse  completely  its  position  on  the  subject 
of  evil,  sin,  suffering,  disease,  calamity,  death,  Heaven,  Hell 
and  everlasting  punishment.  It  is  a  difficult  matter  to  up-root 
the  belief  in  a  Devil,  whether  regarded  as  an  evil  power  or 
Spirit  or  as  an  eternal  entity  and  intelligence  opposed  to  the 
Infinite  God.  It  would  be  equally  difficult  to  banish  material- 
ism from  the  pulpit  and  from  the  minds  of  the  laity  of  organ- 
ized Christianity  or  destroy  the  theory  of  suffering  held  by  the 
church  profession  based  on  the  reality  and  unavoidability  of 
the  ills  and  miseries  of  mankind  and  expressed  in  the  follow- 
inging  conclusion  of  Canon  Masterman,  "For  the  unavoidable 
suffering  of  this  world  we  throw  the  responsibility  on  God." 

Christian  Science  declares  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of 
God  as  Infinite  Good  and  then  incorporate  an  entity  called 
Satan  or  spirit  of  evil,  or  hold  God  responsible  for  evil  in  any 
form.  It  teaches  that  the  only  Satan  there  is,  is  the  false  con- 
cept of  what  has  been  termed  carnal  mind. 

The  successful  growth  of  the  Christian  Science  movement 
has  conclusively  demonstrated  the  fact  that  Christian  Science 
is  based  on  divine  Principle  or  Truth  which  is  capable  of 
demonstration  and  that  a  policy  of  ignoring  or  opposing  it  is 
barren  of  results  and  develops  rather  than  retards  its  progress. 
The  ministerial  classes,  however,  have  not  progressed  beyond 

308 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

the  first  stage  of  opposition  to  Christian  Science.  The  clergy 
continue  in  the  most  bHnd  and  fatuous  manner  to  insist  that 
Christian  Science  conflicts  with  the  Bible  and  hold  fast  to  the 
time-worn,  moss-backed  statement:  "Christian  Science  is  un- 
christian and  unscientific."  Organized  Christianity  clings 
tenaciously  to  its  theory  of  man  as  a  fallen  creature;  Christian 
Science  teaches  that  because  man  is  the  offspring  of  God,  his 
nature  must  be  spiritual,  and  that  the  demonstration  of  health 
and  holiness  upon  this  basis  verifies  the  promise  and  declares 
the  present  practicability  of  true  Christianity. 

The  ministerial  class  as  an  asset  would  consequently  figure 
small  in  any  proposed  combination  with  a  religious  body  which 
has  eliminated  the  preaching  function  from  its  religious  ser- 
vices and  has  made  no  provisions  whatever  for  theological 
middlemen.  To  the  mind  of  the  lay  observer  it  is  not  clear 
just  how  the  Christian  Science  Church  could  utilize  a  body  of 
clerics  who  accept  the  reality  of  evil  and  deny  the  reality  of 
Christian  healing  and  the  possibility  of  restoring  this  lost  heal- 
ing element  to  the  church,  now  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
the  Christian  Science  church.  How  could  they  be  of  any  value 
as  practitioners  without  a  great  change  of  heart?  The  pros- 
pect is  quite  as  remote  as  that  of  church  unity  among  the  war- 
ring denominations  of  institutional  Christianity. 

For  organized  Christianity  to  combine  with  Christian 
Science  would  mean  in  reality  the  decay  and  dissolution  of  its 
ministerial  class.  Hence  any  formal  combination  with  a 
young,  active  and  virile  competitor,  which  is  receiving  accession 
to  its  ranks  by  the  thousands  while  organized  Christianity  is 
losing  its  followers  in  at  least  equal  numbers  we  may  properly 
conclude  is  not  within  the  range  of  probability. 

Thus  far  organized  Christianity  has  stoutly  insisted  that 
it  has  no  use  for  Christian  Science;  Christian  Science,  on  the 
above  showing  as  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  values  of  the 
church — including  its  clerics — would  certainly  have  no  use  for 

309 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

organized  Christianity.  A  combination,  if  effected,  would  sim- 
ply mean  that  organized  Christianity,  as  at  present  conducted, 
would  relapse  into  a  state  of  ''innocuous  desuetude"  or  else  its 
members  would  become  active  Christian  Scientists,  an  alterna- 
tive which  confronts  it  in  either  case. 

But  this  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  there  would  be  less 
religion  in  the  world.  It  does  mean  that  the  religion  of  Christ 
is  throwing  off  its  old  forms.  Less  and  less  emphasis  is  being 
placed  on  ceremonies  and  dogmas,  more  and  more  stress  upon 
the  life  within  and  its  Christ-like  expression  in  outward  ac- 
tivities. 

I  have  been  an  orthodox  church  member  and  intimately  as- 
sociated with  church  activities  for  many  years.  Latterly  I 
have  been  constrained  to  ask  myself  and  others  these  ques- 
tions :  "What  would  happen  if  organized  Christianity  were 
restricted  to  the  simple  order  of  worship  which  obtains  in  the 
Christian  Science  church  services?  What  would  be  left  if  the 
forms  and  ceremonies  which  obtain  among  orthodox  churches 
were  to  be  eliminated?  If  the  clergy,  the  preaching  services, 
the  choirs,  the  exhibitions,  the  fairs,  the  placards,  billboards 
and  other  forms  of  advertising — not  to  mention  the  various 
other  high-pressure  methods,  such  as  brass  bands,  orchestras, 
theatre  and  opera  singers,  chorus  leaders,  cornetists,  famous 
pianists,  stereopticons  and  moving  picture  shows,  employed 
to  bring  dying  men  and  women  into  the  kingdom,  were  all 
dispensed  with,  what  would  be  left  as  its  chief  asset?  Would 
anything  be  left  except  its  scholastic  theology,  and  is  this  not 
so  full  of  outworn  theories  of  predestination,  vicarious  suf- 
fering, total  depravity  and  endless  punishment  that  the  mind 
revolts  from  its  further  presentation  by  the  pulpiteers  of  the 
church?" 

What  then  would  happen?  Is  not  the  answer  an  obvious 
one?  Would  there  be  sufficient  vitality  and  interest  remaining 
to  keep  organized  Christianity  together  over  Sunday  ?    What  is 

Bid 


I 


ORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

its  future  to  be  in  the  face  of  a  church  which  has  restored 
the  simplicity  of  primitive  Christianity  to  the  world,  including 
the  lost  element  of  healing;  that  looks  away  from  all  false 
supports  to  the  one  true  God,  whom  it  worships  in  spirit  and 
in  truth?  Jesus  made  religion  real;  Christian  Science  is 
demonstrating  its  reality  in  this  day  and  age  by  the  simplicity 
of  its  faith,  the  spirituality  of  its  worship  and  its  healing  works. 
Theoretical  truth  can  never  withstand  exerimental  truth;  no 
more  can  organized  Christianity  withstand  Christian  Science 
as  long  as  it  continues  to  concern  itself  with  creeds  and  dog- 
mas, with  doctrines  instead  of  deeds,  and  fails  so  lamentably 
to  illustrate  the  healing  power  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  or  to 
create  a  society  correspondent  to  Christ's  ideals. 


Ill 


V. 

THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT. 

i  <rflHE  church  militant  must  also  be  the  church  expect- 
A  ant,"  says  a  prominent  religious  writer ;  "its  answer  to 
the  challenge  of  the  world  must  be  one  of  faith  and  not  of 
fear."  Christian  expectation  as  to  the  triumphant  conquest  of 
the  world  for  Christ  still  has  plenty  of  room  for  exercise. 
Organized  Christianity  still  continues  to  wait  and  hope  for  the 
fulfilment  of  its  Master's  great  commission,  *'Go  ye  into  the 
world  and  disciple  all  nations." 

In  a  lapse  of  nineteen  centuries  the  church  has  accom- 
plished one-third  of  its  task.  The  unfulfilled  portion,  viz. : 
the  conversion  to  Christianity  of  the  remainder  of  the  human 
race,  the  laymen's  missionary  movement  generously  and 
bravely  purposes  to  accomplish  in  a  period  of  thirty-five  years, 
through  the  employment  of  a  force  of  40,ocxd  missionary  work- 
ers and  the  expenditure  of  the  sum  of  $55,000,000  per  annum, 
or  a  total  of  $2,000,000,000  for  the  entire  period. 

The  attitude  of  the  leaders  of  the  laymen's  missionary 
movement  is  no  less  militant  than  that  of  the  church.  Whether 
it  is  due  to  "an  intense  faith  or  a  fevered  imagination,"  or 
whether  that  movement  will  ever  pass  from  the  missionary 
movement  militant  to  the  missionary  movement  triumphant 
remains  to  be  seen.  The  proposition,  in  brief,  is  for  an  influen- 
tion  and  thorough  organized  body  of  successful  business  lay- 
men, drawn  from  financial,  industrial,  professional  and  other 
circles  to  combine  with  the  church  in  a  united  and  vigorous 
effort  to  bring  about  the  prompt  conversion  of  the  heathen 
world  to  Christianity. 

312 


THE   LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

To  treble  the  present  force  of  missionaries,  operating  under 
the  auspices  of  organized  Christianity  and  more  than  double 
missionary  collections  and  expenditures  is  within  the  range  of 
possibility  if  the  movement  were  such  as  to  enlist  the  financial 
backing  that  the  wealth  and  Christian  sentiment  of  this  age  is 
fully  able  to  give  it.  The  question  is  not  one  of  ability  to  se- 
cure the  required  force  of  workers  nor  the  necessary  funds  to 
support  the  undertaking;  it  is  whether  practical,  successful 
business  men  will  consider  the  movement  sufficiently  well  ad- 
vised to  support  it  to  the  extent  proposed. 

The  movement  raises  at  once  a  number  of  serious  queries : 
Is  the  type  of  Christianity  which  organized  Christianity  is  now 
exemplifying  worth  propagating?  What  is  the  message  which 
it  brings  to  the  world  ?  What  is  it  actually  doing  ?  What  is  its 
promise  to  humanity? 

Since  its  present  system  of  conducting  its  missionary  work 
is  neither  scriptural,  wise,  economical  nor  attended  with  satis- 
factory results,  is  it  a  sound  proposition  to  employ  a  force  of 
40,000  missionaries  and  to  expend  $2,000,000,000  in  an  en- 
deavor to  evangelize  the  heathen  under  orthodox  auspices? 

Some  Practical  Questions. 

There  are  those  who  profess  to  see  in  the  signs  of  our 
times  that  which  presages  the  passing  of  Protestantism  and  the 
coming  in  of  a  new  Catholicism.  The  present  is  regarded  by 
many  as  a  transitional  era  in  which  Protestantism  stands  as  a 
providential  preparation  for  something  beyond  itself,  -as  the 
prelude  to  a  more  glorious  age  and  a  grander  Christianity 
already  at  the  door.  Before  wide-awake,  practical  men  will 
employ  men  and  money  on  a  missionary  scheme,  they  must 
have  satisfactory  answers  to  some  A^ery  practical  questions 

For  instance,  how  are  these  40,000  workers  to  be  employed  ? 
Who  are  to  organize  and  direct  their  activities  ?    Through  what 

313 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

channels  is  the  money  to  be  disbursed?  In  what  particular 
direction  or  through  what  particular  lines  of  effort  are  their 
energies  to  be  exerted?  Are  they  to  constitute  an  organized 
force,  operating  as  a  compact  whole  and  directed  to  certain 
definite  ends  on  behalf  of  organized  institutional  Christianity, 
and  if  so,  what  body  of  men  are  to  take  the  responsible  man- 
agement of  the  work?  Is  the  movement  to  be  conducted 
through  existing  mission  boards  or  through  a  body  of  repre- 
sentatives drawn  from  the  entire  Christian  world,  Catholic, 
Greek  and  Protestant,  in  proportion  to  membership?  Or,  if 
the  workers  employed  and  the  money  raised  is  to  be  divided 
among  the  different  branches  of  the  Protestant  church  and 
disbursed  under  separated  church  auspices,  who  is  to  make 
that  apportionment  and  how  provide  against  the  work  being 
carried  on  along  competing  lines  of  effort,  so  that  a  Baptist,  for 
instance,  shall  not  duplicate  the  work  of  a  Methodist  on  the 
same  ground  ?  Who  shall  decide  between  the  claim  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  as  the  one  universal  and  divinely  or- 
ganized church  of  Christ,  and  the  claim  of  the  Protestant 
Episcoal  church  as  the  one  church  of  Christ,  outside  of  which, 
and  "separated  from  that  unity  all  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world  are  merely  so-called  Christians?" 

The  question  immediately  arises,  will  the  object  of  this 
grand  propaganda  for  Christianity  be  to  convert  the  heathen 
world  to  Roman  Catholicism  or  to  make  Protestant,  Episco- 
palian, or  Baptist,  or  Methodist,  or  Unitarian,  or  Lutheran, 
converts,  and  how  successfully  can  that  object  be  carried  out? 
What  can  a  divided,  sectarian,  decadent  Christianity  do  for 
the  world  ?  How  effectively  can  it  support  a  missionary  move- 
ment? If  church  unity  is  impossible  of  attainment,  as  we 
have  already  pointed  out,  is  the  outlook  for  missionary  unity 
of  effort  any  more  promising? 

A  proposition  to  carry  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  all  the 
heathen  world  raises  of  necessity  a  question  as  to  the  particular 

314 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

type  of  Christian  church  or  Qiristian  sect  which  shall  be 
urged  upon  the  acceptance  of  the  non-Christians  and  if  con- 
verts to  Christianity  are  made,  under  what  form  or  instutition 
or  creed,  ritual,  polity  or  ecclesiastical  organization  shall  they 
be  gathered?       "* 

Attitude  Toward  Christian  Healing. 

A  proposition  of  this  magnitude  also  involves  other  ques- 
tions. Is  the  commission  Jesus  gave  to  His  followers,  viz. : 
"to  preach  the  gospel  and  heal  the  sick/'  to  be  carried  out,  and 
if  so,  will  this  body  of  40,000  laborers  be  supplied  with  the 
proper  credentials  from  the  churches  they  represent  to  fulfil 
this  commission  in  its  entirety?  Will  these  missionaries  seek 
the  undivided  garment,  the  whole  Christ,  as  the  first  proof  of 
Christianity,  or  will  they  be  governed  by  the  attitude  of  the 
Protestant  clergy  of  to-day  as  to  Christian  healing? 

What  reply  will  the  missionary  make  to  the  poor  heathen 
who  finds  in  the  New  Testament  the  distinct  command  the 
Master  gave  to  His  disciples  to  go  forth  into  all  the  world,  to 
heal  the  sick  ?  What  answer  is  to  be  given  to  the  direct  ques- 
tion, "Why  can  you  not  heal  now  as  did  Jesus'  followers  in 
the  early  ages  of  Christianity"  ?  What  are  the  missionaries  to 
say  or  to  do  when  confronted  by  another  religious  denomina- 
tion which  is  demonstrating  the  power  of  the  gospel  to  save 
the  sick  as  well  as  the  sinful  ? 

"Man-made  doctrines  are  waning.  They  have  not  waxed 
strong  in  times  of  trouble.  Devoid  of  the  Christ-power,  how 
can  they  illustrate  the  doctrines  of  Christ  or  the  miracles  of 
grace?  Denial  of  the  possibility  of  Christian  healing  robs 
Christianity  of  the  very  element  which  gave  it  divine  force  and 
its  astonishing  and  unequalled  success  in  the  first  century. 
Christians  are  under  as  direct  orders  now  as  they 

31S 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

were  then,  to  be  Christ-like,  to  possess  the  Christ-spirit,  to 
follow  the  Christ-example,  and  to  heal  the  sick  as  well  as 
the  sinning."^ 

If  the  gospel  these  missionaries  are  to  preach  is  not  to  in- 
clude Christianity's  lost  element  of  healing,  are  they  to  carry 
a  stock  of  assorted  drugs  and  be  accompanied  with  a  body  of 
druggists  and  doctors,  so  that  by  an  admixture  of  religion  and 
materia  medica  the  heathen  may  receive  the  benefits  and 
blessings  of  the  Christian  civilization  these  missionaries  have 
left  behind  them? 

If  he  be  wise,  the  poor  heathen  may  urge,  perhaps,  that 
many  drugs  are  badly  adulterated,  or  are  deadly  poison;  still, 
if  he  buys  a  poisonous  drug  at  an  orthodox  dispensary  he  may 
have  the  bottle  so  labeled,  or  if  a  materialistic  doctor  prescribes 
it,  he  may  have  the  satisfaction  vouchsafed  to  Christian  coun- 
tries of  getting  a  Latin  name  for  it  combined  with  a  druggist's 
prescription  number!  If  he  ask  whether  this  sort  of  healing 
propaganda  will  be  attended  with  success  or  whether  there  will 
be  any  less  sickness  because  of  this  combination  of  Christian- 
ity and  materia  medica ;  if  he  seeks  to  know  what  has  been  the 
experience  of  those  countries  whence  the  missionaries  came, 
what  sort  of  information  will  he  get?  The  honest  and  well 
informed  missionary  will  be  obliged  to  confess  that  there  is 
more  disease  and  mortality  than  ever ;  that  the  need  for  doctors 
has  been  increasing  instead  of  diminishing;  that  it  costs  more 
under  materia  medica  to  be  sick  and  to  get  well  than  at  any 
previous  period  in  the  history  of  the  race. 

Church  Unity  Essential. 

One  may  also  conceive  of  these  missionaries  carrying  an 
assorted  stock  of  books  on  scholastic  theology.  But  who  shall 
decide  as  to  the  particular  creed  they  shall  teach,  or  as  to  the 

^Science  and  Health,  pages  134  and  138. 

316 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

doctrines  and  dogmas  they  shall  enforce,  as  essential  to  faith 
and  salvation  ?  The  church  for  years  has  been  trying  to  reach 
a  consensus  as  to  the  essential  doctrines  of  Christianity  and 
has  hopelessly  failed  in  its  efforts.  Is  the  acceptance  of  the 
old  theological  formulas  of  organized  Christianity  as  to  the 
existence  of  an  evil  power,  of  Hell  and  endless  punishment  to 
be  enjoined  upon  heathen  nations  as  a  condition  precedent  to 
admission  to  the  church  and  as  the  passport  to  the  realms  of 
the  blessed,  when  the  time  comes  for  them  to  shuffle  off  this 
mortal  coil? 

Will  these  missionaries  be  of  one  particular  denomina- 
tion, or  if  not,  to  what  extent  shall  they  be  representative  of 
the  200  more  or  less  divided  and  warring  sects  which  comprise 
Christendom?  Will  they  engage  in  rival  proselyting,  and  thus 
perpetuate  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  the  feuds  and  doc- 
trinal controversies  of  the  denominations  they  represent  on 
this  side  of  the  ocean?  And  if  so,  what  effect  will  all  this  have 
upon  the  heathen  world  ? 

But,  suppose  this  laymen's  movement  be  conducted  on  non- 
sectarian  lines,  as  an  effort  on  the  part  of  lay  Christians  to  take 
up  and  complete  the  church's  unfinished  missionary  work,  and 
to  meet  the  spiritual  needs  of  this  age  by  carrying  Jesus'  gospel 
to  every  creature.  Is  it  to  be  carried  on  outside  denominational 
lines  and  entirely  independent  of  church  affiliations,  and  if  so, 
how  shall  the  movement  be  organized  and  conducted?  If  the 
Christian  religion  is  to  be  thus  carried  to  the  heathen  world 
and  converts  made,  into  what  kind  of  a  society  or  religious 
body  shall  they  be  organized,  and  upon  what  profession  of 
faith?  What  shall  be  the  form  of  worship  adopted,  what  ini- 
tiatory rights  and  what  rules  and  regulations,  or  ecclesiastical 
organization  and  discipline  are  to  be  adopted?  Do  not  such 
questions  carry  their  own  answer  ?  Would  not  a  movement  of 
this  kind  be  doomed  to  failure  from  the  outset  ? 

To  be  successful  a  propaganda  for  Christianity,  as  contem- 

317 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

plated  by  the  laymen's  missionary  movement,  must  be  waged 
on  behalf  of  a  united  Christianity,  not  as  representative  of  a 
multitude  of  different  branches  hopelessly  divided  on  questions 
of  apostoHc  succession,  validity  of  orders,  doctrinal  beliefs, 
dogmas,  ritual  and  theological  formulas.  It  must  be  backed  by 
a  church  as  one  in  its  doctrinal  beliefs  and  its  means  and 
methods  of  realizing  the  religion  of  Christ,  and  not  on  behalf 
of  a  church  that  has  fallen  into  feebleness  and  become  a  dis- 
integrating force.  On  any  other  basis  the  movement  will  be 
a  waste  of  time  and  money. 

Rival  Claims. 

The  laymen's  missionary  movement  brings  the  Christian 
world  face  to  face  with  the  great  question  as  to  the  truth 
of  rival  Christian  denominations.  As  a  highly  organized  and 
finely  articulated  hierarchial  system,  legislative,  administrative, 
able  to  comprehend  men  and  nations  and  cover  the  whole  life 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  the  Roman  church  stands  as  the 
most  permanent  form  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  has  an  un- 
broken existence  of  seventeen  centuries ;  it  stands  pre-eminent 
as  a  historical  institution  possessed  of  an  august  Catholicism ; 
it  represents  on  the  largest  scale  the  continuity  of  religion  in 
history.  Its  following  of  230,(X)0,ooo  nearly  equals  the  total 
following  of  all  the  other  Christian  sects  in  the  world.  It 
claims  to  be  the  one  universal  Church  of  Christ.  The  Pope 
stands  as  the  spiritual  sovereign  of  this  church,  which  claims 
to  be  the  true  source  of  Christian  unity,  of  law  and  of  order, 
and  possessed  of  the  right  and  authority  to  direct  the  energies, 
formulate  the  judgments  and  determine  the  faith  of  the  church. 

To  disrupt  Christian  unity  as  was  done  by  the  exodus  of 
the  Greek  church  and  later  the  Protestant  denominations;  tq 
build  up  obstacles  to  the  healing  of  the  breach,  whether  from 
one  cause  or  another,  Rome  denounces  as  the  sin  of  sins  against 

318 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

Christ.  And  the  argument  by  which  this  conclusion  is  sup- 
ported is  well-nigh  irresistible.  If  the  protest  of  both  Orient 
and  Occident  was  aimed  at  vital  conditions,  the  supremacy  of 
St.  Peter,  it  was  wrong.  Away  from  Peter,  away  from  the 
church ;  this  was  the  law  of  the  early  church. 

But  if  the  protest  of  both  Greek  and  Protestant  was  aimed 
not  against  the  supremacy  of  St.  Peter  but  against  policies  and 
administrative  acts,  matters  in  which  the  Papacy  does  not  claim 
immunity  from  error,  then,  as  Archbishop  Ireland  forcibly 
urges,  they  should  have  remained  a  protest  and  never  a  sep- 
aration. The  logic  of  this  position  is  incontrovertible.  So 
long  as  the  supremacy  of  St.  Peter  is  acknowledged,  with- 
drawal from  the  Roman  church,  under  whatever  provocation, 
real  or  fictitious,  is  indefensible.  Time  does  not  make  it  right, 
however  long  the  separation  lasts.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Cath- 
olic hierarchy,  Protestantism  is  a  schism  or  sect  in  rebellion 
to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Pope. 

If  we  believe  that  God  has  committed  His  Truth,  His 
Spirit  and  His  redemptive  agencies  to  the  keeping  of  this 
peculiar  and  pre-eminent  church,  then  the  control  of  these 
40,000  missionaries  and  the  disbursement  of  this  $2,000,000,000 
proposed  to  be  raised  to  convert  the  rest  of  the  world  within 
this  generation  belongs  of  right  to  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
and  the  laymen's  missionary  movement  should  be  conducted 
imder  her  auspices. 

For  centuries  Rome  reigned  without  a  rival.  Had  not  her 
infallibility  in  doctrine  become  so  mated  in  the  15th  century 
with  inefficiency  in  conduct  as  to  result  in  the  completest  break- 
down in  the  matter  of  faith  and  morals  that  Christian  Europe 
has  ever  known,  there  would  have  been  no  Protestant  Refor- 
mation ;  her  unity  as  the  one  universal  Church  of  Christ  would 
have  continued  unbroken  to  this  day.  But  the  authority  of 
the  church   forbade  the  reform  of  the  church   from  within, 

319 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

and  the  Protestant  Reformation  thus  became  the  tomb  of  the 
Roman  embodiment  of  church  unity.  The  struggles  of  the 
reformers  for  religious  liberty  and  the  creative  spirit  of  that 
reformation,  while  it  broke  Roman  church  unity,  crushing  its 
supremacy,  nevertheless  saved  the  religion. 

And  what  part  has  the  Roman  Catholic  church  had  in  the 
making  of  modern  civilization  by  virtue  of  which  it  can  right- 
fully urge  that  the  work  of  evangelizing  the  world  should  be 
conducted  under  its  auspices? 

"The  centuries  that  have  elapsed  since  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury ended  have  been  without  doubt  the  most  eventful,  fruitful, 
momentous  in  the  history  of  men ;  and  their  history  has  been 
the  history  of  Christian  people.  The  record  of  their  material 
progress  has  been  a  record  of  marvels.  America  has  been  dis- 
covered, colonized,  peopled ;  Asia  has  been  opened  up,  almost 
conquered  and  annexed ;  Africa  has  been  explored,  and  is  being 
pierced  and  penetrated  on  all  sides,  and  in  the  Australian  con- 
tinent and  islands  the  seeds  of  new  states  have  been  plentifully 
grown. 

"The  European  States,  with  certain  significant  exceptions, 
are  mightier  than  they  were  four  centuries  ago,  better  ordered, 
more  moral,  more  populous,  freer,  wealthier;  and  the  poorest 
of  the  countries  has  become  rich  and  full  of  comforts  as  com- 
pared with  Europe  in  the  days  of  the  Black  Death. 

"But  the  conquests  and  colonizations  eflfected  by  Catholic 
States,  so  far  as  order,  progress  and  human  well-being  are  con- 
cerned, have  been  chapters  of  disaster  and  failure.  The  pro- 
gressive peoples  have  been  the  non-Catholic ;  they  have  been  the 
least  troubled  with  revolution;  have  had  the  most  happy,  well 
ordered  commonwealths;  have  enjoyed  the  most  freedom. 

"That  were,  indeed,  a  strange  and  satirical  theodicy  that 
should  exhibit  God  as  working  poverty  and  revolution  in  the 
nations  that  had  accepted  or  been  forced  to  accept  the  author- 

320 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

ity  of  His  own  infallibile  church,  while  sending  fulness  of  life 
and  grace  and  freedom  into  those  that  had  deserted  and  dis- 
owned it."^ 

These  conclusions  drawn  from  the  history  of  the  past  three 
hundred  years  by  Dr.  Fairbairn,  the  Roman  Curia  by  no  means 
accepts  as  true  or  anywhere  near  the  truth.  On  the  contrary, 
in  the  Pope's  recent  encycHcal,  referring  to  St.  Charles  Barro- 
meo  as  the  great  champion  of  Catholic  reform  as  opposed  to 
the  Protestant  and  "heretical"  reform  of  Luther,  we  find  Prot- 
estantism charged  with  the  most  grievous  crimes.  Its  respon- 
sibility for  all  that  was  bad  in  the  history  of  the  civilization  of 
the  past  three  centuries  is  set  forth  in  the  most  emphatic  terms. 
Says  the  encyclical : 

"They  called  the  perversion  of  faith  and  morals  reform,  and 
themselves  reformers.  In  truth  they  were  seducers,  and  while 
they  exhausted  the  strength  of  Europe  in  strife  and  war,  they 
prepared  the  way  for  the  upheaval  and  decadence  of  modern 
times,  in  which  three  sorts  of  strife  that  were  formerly  sep- 
arated and  from  which  the  Church  always  emerged  victorious, 
were  united — the  bloody  struggles  of  early  times,  the  internal 
plague  of  heresies,  and  finally,  under  the  name  of  evangelical 
freedom,  that  corruption  of  morals  and  perversion  of  discip- 
line to  which  the  Middle  Ages  hardly  reached."  This  is  a 
sweeping  indictment  of  Protestantism,  and  drawn,  mind  you, 
not  in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  in  the  twentieth  century. 
Which  is  right,  the  Pope  or  Dr.  Fairbaim? 

At  all  events  may  we  not  safely  conclude  that  the  laymen's 
missionary  movement  will  not  be  a  propaganda  for  Roman 
Catholicism  or  be  conducted  under  the  direction  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church?  May  we  not  surmise  that  it  will  not  under- 
take to  extend  either  Roman  Catholic  religious  rule  or  the 
Roman  Catholic  type  of  Christian  civilization?    On  the  other 

^Catholicism,  Roman  and  Anglican,  pages  196  and  198. 

321 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

hand,  may  it  not  be  assumed  with  equal  positiveness  that  any 
missionary  movement  conducted  by  the  Roman  CathoUc 
Church,  having  as  its  purpose  the  christianizing  of  the  heathen 
world,  will  not  be  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  laymen's 
missionary  movement? 

Passing  Protestantism. 

Protestantism  divides  with  the  Roman  church  the  religious 
supremacy  of  the  Qiristian  world.  Its  polity  is  diametrically 
opposed  to  Roman  polity.  In  this  age  of  revolutionary  thought 
and  action,  both  are  opposed  by  the  modern  thinking  World. 
The  echoes  of  the  bitter  struggle  of  the  Protestant  reformers 
have  scarce  died  away  with  the  lapse  of  years,  and  in  this  criti- 
cal and  skeptical  age  there  has  been  and  is  now  taking  place 
a  great  falling  away  from  both  Roman  and  Protestant  church 
communions.  Ended  is  the  religious  warfare  which  Protest- 
antism waged  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  as 
the  one  divinely  constituted  Church  of  Christ.  Passed  are  the 
confused  years  of  reconstruction,  creed  building  and  church 
making  which  Protestantism  reached  in  its  rise.  Fulfilled  is  its 
providential  mission ;  attained  its  end,  achieved  its  work. 

Protestantism  no  less  than  Romanism  has  lost  religious 
authority.  It  has  failed  to  master  the  controlling  forces  of 
life.  It  lacks  authority  in  the  family,  and  controls  over  the 
family  life.  It  has  lost  influence  over  modern  thought  and 
over  the  nations  it  has  created  and  made  free.  Worldliness, 
and  greed,  and  selfishness,  and  unbelief  have  crept  into  the 
church  whose  usefulness  has  been  ruined.  Multitudes  of  peo- 
ple have  withdrawn  from  its  fold.  It  has  suffered  a  tremen- 
dous loss  of  power  and  moral  leadership.  Its  worn-out  theo- 
logical formulas  have  lost  their  hold  upon  the  modern  world; 
they  repel  rather  than  attract  the  common  people  to  its  com- 
munion. Its  ministry  is  becoming  decadent,  the  age  of  ser- 
mons is  fast  passing  away.     And  in  this  enumeration  of  the 

322 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

failures,  not  of  Christianity,  but  of  the  organized  institutions 
which  misinterpret  Christianity  to  this  age,  nothing  by  general 
consent  is  deemed  more  fatal  to  religious  efficiency  everywhere 
than  the  loss  of  the  unity  of  the  church. 

A  divided  Christendom  can  only  imperfectly  bear  witness 
to  the  essential  unity  of  Christianity. 

Christianity  has  lost  standing  and  moral  leadership  in  a 
great  part  of  the  world  in  large  measure  because  of  its  unfortu- 
nate divisions.  Such  divisions  will  never  be  healed  while  one 
church  maintains  a  holier-than-thou  attitude.  Jesus  prayed 
for  oneness  of  His  followers  that  the  world  might  believe. 
Christian  unity  is  an  imperative  necessity ;  it  is  a  condition  pre- 
cedent to  the  successful  issue  of  a  comprehensive  missionary 
movement  among  heathen  nations.  Christians  must  of  neces- 
sity compose  their  differences  at  home  before  they  can  success- 
fully undertake  to  establish  Christ's  kingdom  among  alien 
races.  The  prospect  of  their  doing  so  has  already  been  dis- 
cussed. 

The  inevitable  consequence  of  a  divided  Christianity  is  a 
weak  Christianity,  ineffectual  for  the  work  to  which  it  is  com- 
mitted by  its  great  Founder.  Lack  of  unity  among  the  several 
Protestant  denominations  reflected  in  different  degrees  be- 
tween crowding,  struggling  churches  of  the  same  name,  and 
by  a  wasteful  competition  within  the  same  denomination  in  the 
same  locality  involves  a  degenerative  process  which  Christian- 
ity has  need  to  overcome  before  it  can  be  in  a  position  to  carry 
on  an  aggressive  warfare  against  heathenism,  either  at  home 
or  abroad. 

International  missionary  work  such  as  the  laymen's  mission- 
ary movement  contemplates  requires  something  more  than  the 
weak  support  which  separate  and  more  or  less  warring  sects 
will  be  able  to  give  it.  Time  was  when  the  Catholic  church 
was  able  to  control  the  whole  mechanism  of  society.  But  that 
age  has  passed.     The  church  has  lost  its  temporal  rule  over 

323 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

nations  and  its  spiritual  authority  over  more  than  one-half  of 
the  Christian  world.  Protestantism  has  frayed  out  into  so 
many  separate  strands  that  these  look  like  ravellings  and  at 
most  have  scarce  strength  to  bear  the  strain  of  holding  their 
own  memberships  together,  much  less  to  draw  the  great  masses 
of  the  heathen  world  into  the  Christian  fold. 

Organized  Christianity  has  been  conducting  a  missionary 
propaganda  for  hundreds  of  years.  Enormous  sums  of  money 
have  been  contributed  by  Christian  believers,  reaching  in  the 
aggregate  over  $25,000,000  annually  during  recent  years.  A 
force  of  over  20,000  missionaries  is  now  employed  in  the  vari- 
ous countries  open  to  missionary  effort.  What  are  the  results  ? 
Take  China,  for  instance,  as  a  representative  mission  field. 
China  contains  400,000,000  souls,  nearly  one-half  of  the  num- 
ber which  the  laymen's  missionary  movement  proposes  to  bring 
to  Christ  in  the  next  thirty-five  years.  Here  we  find  a  body 
of  6,388  Protestant  missionary  workers.  Thus  far,  the  masses 
in  China  have  been  unaffected  by  Christianity  and  are  likely  to 
continue  so  unless  Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants  can  agree 
in  their  missionary  propagandas  and  end  the  warfare  which  has 
existed  between  them. 

As  a  result  of  the  past  sixty  years  of  missionary  endeavor 
China  shows  a  meagre  200,000  names  on  the  church  books,  a 
drop  in  the  bucket  as  compared  with  her  teeming  millions. 
Under  present  methods  of  carrying  on  missionary  work  abroad, 
it  costs  in  some  districts  in  China  $10.57  to  expend  $1  for  the 
good  of  the  cause,  that  is,  directly  among  the  Chinese.  Out  of 
every  dollar  raised  for  foreign  missions,  scarcely  one-quarter 
ever  reaches  the  heathen  in  any  personal  or  effective  form. 

At  the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions,  held  in  Chicago  in 
1893,  ^-  ^-  Nagarkar,  a  Brahman  layman,  expressed  himself 
on  the  subject  of  Christian  missionaries  in  these  emphatic 
words : 

"Sad  will  be  the  day  for  India  when  Christian  missionaries 

324 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

cease  to  come;  for  we  have  much  to  learn  about  Christ  and 
Christian  civiHzation.  They  do  some  good  work.  But  if  con- 
verts are  the  measure  of  their  success,  we  have  to  say  that  their 
work  is  a  failure.  Little  do  you  dream  that  your  money  is  ex- 
pended in  spreading  abroad  nothing  but  Christian  dogmatism, 
Christian  bigotry,  Christian  pride  and  Christian  exclusiveness. 
I  entreat  you  to  expend  one-tenth  only  of  your  vast  sacrifices 
in  sending  out  to  our  country  unsectarian,  broad  missionaries 
who  will  devote  their  energy  to  educating  our  men  and  women. 
Educated  men  will  understand  Christ  better  than  those  whom 
you  convert  to  the  narrow  creed  of  some  cant  Christianity." 
In  Japan  there  are  thirteen  Methodist  churches,  only  three 
self-supporting,  to  show  for  years  of  missionary  labor  and 
thousands  of  dollars  expended.  The  Baptists  are  doing  no 
better  relatively  to  the  missionaries  employed  and  the  money 
spent.  How  great  is  organized  Christianity's  loss  of  influence 
and  power  abroad,  is  evidenced  by  the  judgment  pronounced 
upon  it  by  a  Japanese  recently : 

"It  is  a  sad  thing,"  says  the  Christian  World  of  September 
25,  1909,  "to  hear  such  words  as  these  of  a  Japanese  recently 
spoken  to  a  friend  of  the  writer:  'Christianity  is  greatly  dis- 
counted in  Japan  because  of  its  seeming  impotency  in  your  own 
country.'  He  then  referred  to  the  corrupt  and  pagan  condition 
of  our  own  cities,  remarking  that  the  missionary  was  com- 
pletely handicapped  in  Japan  by  these  revelations  of  the  im- 
potency of  Christianity  to  redeem  the  so-called  Christian  coun- 
tries from  paganism." 

And  Dr.  Green,  prominent  as  a  minister  and  as  a  profound 
student  of  theology,  who  has  recently  been  in  the  Orient,  mak- 
ing investigations  along  the  line  of  missionary  work  in  that 
country,  makes  these  most  significant  remarks : 

"If  denominationalism  is  a  misfortune  at  home,  it  is  the  ab- 
solute paralysis  of  foreign  missions.  And  so  in  Japan  the  mis- 
sionaries have  learned  the  wisdom  of  necessity.  Divisional 
lines  are  far  more  thinly  drawn  there  than  at  home.     They 

325 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

might  almost  disappear  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  denomina- 
tional support  at  home  depends  upon  denominational  orthodoxy 
abroad.     But  the  Japanese  are  too  uniformly  courteous  to  be     ' 
exclusive  even  in  their  conversion. 

"The  Christianity  of  theological  discussions,  of  denomina- 
tions, cannot  be  built  up  on  imaginary  distinctions  or  the 
archaic  creeds,  whose  usefulness,  if  they  ever  had  any,  long 
since  passed  away.  Not  the  preaching  of  subtle  theory,  but  of 
the  universal  gospel  of  high  and  holy  living,  the  supremest 
epitaph  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  of  whom  it  was  said,  'He  went 
about  doing  good,'  is  the  Gospel  that  can  never  fail. 

"Had  we  been  able  to  approach  Japan  two  decades  ago 
with  a  Christianity  united  in  its  operation,  agreed  in  its  dog- 
mas, one  in  its  structure,  this  story  need  not  have  been  written. 
Had  we  possessed  a  united  religion  instead  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  different  sorts  and  kinds  of  religion — even  though 
our  practical  morality  might  not  have  consistently  coincided 
with  much  of  our  theoretical  doctrine — Prince  Ito's  plan  of 
making  the  Japanese  nation  a  Christian  nation  upon  the  ac- 
cession of  its  coming  new  ruler  might  have  been  carried  out. 
What  would  have  been  of  far  more  value,  the  mind  and  the 
heart  of  Japan  might  have  turned  at  just  the  psychological 
moment  to  the  lofty  and  impressive  ideals  of  Christianity."^ 

Japan  has  taken  her  place  among  civilized  nations.  But 
for  centuries  she  has  had  to  meet  the  conflicting  claims  and  the 
ecclesiastical  warfare  of  contending  sects.  She  finds  Christian- 
ity even  more  confusedly  divided.  In  a  recent  volume  entitled 
"Fifty  Years  of  New  Japan,"  compiled  by  Count  Okuma,  this 
versatile  Japanese  statesman  refers  to  prevailing  conditions  in 
that  country  in  these  words : 

"Japan  at  present  may  be  likened  to  a  sea  into  which  a  hun- 
dred currents  of  Oriental  and  Occidental  thoughts — some  only 
conceived,  others  partially  or  wholly  executed,  during  the  past 
century  or  more — have  poured  in  and,  not  having  yet  effected 
a  fusion,  are  raging  wildly,  tossing,  warring  and  rearing." 

But  in  matters  of  religion   for  organized  Christianity  to 

^Hamptons  Magazine,  Dec,  1909. 

326 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

make  moral  acceptability  depend  upon  intellectual  assent  to 
what  reason  pronounces  as  impossible,  is  superstition.  So  de- 
clares a  Japanese  university  graduate  and  man  of  letters,  who 
further  says:  "We  are  all  throwing  away  our  hereditary 
superstitions  for  the  clearer  guidance  of  science  and  intelligent 
reason."  The  growth  of  Japan  during  the  last  half  century  has 
been  the  marvel  of  all  history.  Not  less  wonderful  is  the  free- 
dom which  Japan  has  achieved  from  all  hampering  ancient  ties 
and  her  successful  appropriation  of  the  best  of  western  civiliza- 
tion. "Japan's  test  will  be  practicality,"  says  Dr.  Green.  "She 
will  be  intolerant  of  mere  theological  definition,  of  dogmatic 
discussion.  Her  rule  of  choice  will  be  the  one  given  by  the 
Master  of  Men :   *By  their  fruits  shall  ye  know  them'  " 

Since  Christian  Science  has  discarded  superstition,  and  not 
only  reconciles  reason  and  revelation,  but  demonstrates  the 
scientific  correctness  of  its  teachings  by  works  of  healing  and 
reformation;  since  it  presents  a  church  united  in  its  faith  and 
worship  and  works,  and  a  religion  able  to  stand  the  test  of 
practicality;  is  there  not  every  probability  that  it  will  be  the 
very  religion  which  Japan  will  ultimately  adopt  as  its  national 
religion,  on  the  principle  laid  down  by  the  Great  Teacher. 

To  the  intensely  practical  mind  of  the  Japanese,  the  fruitage 
which  Christian  Science  presents  in  the  physical,  moral  and 
material  well-being  of  its  followers  is  bound  to  make  a  power- 
ful and  convincing  appeal,  inasmuch  as  such  fruitage  ultimates 
in  that  peace,  security  and  happiness  of  society  and  of  the 
nation  which  is  the  aim  of  the  enlightened  statesmanship  of 
that  country. 

Measuring  Christian  Science  by  the  old  forms  of  religion, 
be  it  Mohammedanism,  Confucianism,  Buddhism  or  institu- 
tional Christianity  of  the  present  day;  comparing  doctrine 
with  doctrine;  modern  forms  and  methods  of  worship  with  a 
bigoted  and  mediaeval  ecclesiasticism ;  contrasting  administra- 
tion with  administration ;  tested  by  practical  results  as  exhibited 

327 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

in  the  reformation  of  the  sinful,  the  restoration  of  the  sick  to 
health  and  the  happy  Hves  of  its  followers,  is  there  any  ques- 
tion as  to  which  of  the  religions  of  the  world  Japan  will  ulti- 
mately choose  as  its  own?  And  may  not  Japan,  superior  type 
though  it  is,  be  taken  as  typical  of  all  the  nations? 

The  Vital  Issue. 

The  question  as  to  the  truth  of  rival  churches  or  the  com- 
petency of  either  Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant  churches  to 
conduct  this  grand  missionary  movement  does  not  touch  the 
fundamental  consideration.  The  vital  issue  which  the  laymen's 
missionary  movement  involves  and  which  every  layman  who  is 
asked  to  subscribe  to  the  fund  proposed  to  be  raised  must  con- 
sider is  this :  What  is  the  form  in  which  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  can  be  most  effectively  presented  for  the  consideration 
and  acceptance  of  heathen  nations  ? 

In  Judaism  the  God  of  the  priesthood  loved  the  official  sanc- 
tities of  the  temple,  the  altar,  the  sacrifice,  the  incense,  the 
priest  and  his  garments  and  bells  and  breastplates,  the  sabbath, 
the  new  moon,  the  feast  and  the  solemn  assembly.  Christ 
Jesus  placed  the  emphasis  uf>on  moral  and  spiritual  sanctities, 
the  living  temple;  the  whole  people  constituted  a  priesthood, 
they  were  kings  and  priests  unto  God.  The  sacrifices  of  the 
broken  spirit  and  the  contrite  heart,  the  law  written  in  the 
heart,  the  worship  expressed  in  obedience,  the  obedience  that 
consisted  in  doing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and  walking  humbly 
with  God — this  was  the  type  of  religion  Jesus  enjoined  upon 
His  followers. 

In  the  New  Testament  ideal  of  religion,  God  appears  as  a 
God  of  mercy  and  grace,  the  Father  of  man,  who  needs  not  to 
be  appeased,  but  is  gracious,  propitious,  finds  the  propitiation, 
provides  the  propitiator.  His  own  Son  is  the  only  sacrifice, 
priest  and  mediator  appointed  of  God  to  achieve  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  man.    Man  is  God's  son;  filial  love  is  his  primary  duty. 

328 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

Worship  does  not  depend  on  sacred  persons,  places  or  rites, 
but  is  a  thing  of  spirit  and  truth.  The  best  prayer  is  secret  and 
personal.  The  man  who  best  pleases  God  is  not  the  scrupulous 
Pharisee  but  the  penitent  publican. 

There  is  very  little  evidence  in  the  New  Testament  to  show 
that  Jesus  ever  laid  any  special  emphasis  upon  the  idea  of  the 
church,  as  an  organized  institution.  Only  twice  is  the  term 
attributed  to  Him.  In  the  one  instance  it  occurs  in  a  local  or 
congregational  sense  and  once  in  the  universal,  but  only  as  a 
means  of  defining  His  own  sole  activity  and  supremacy.  The 
early  Christian  churches  which  were  formed  to  perpetuate 
Jesus'  work  and  extend  God's  kingdom  did  not  have  any  cor- 
porate relation  to  each  other.  They  were  divided  by  differ- 
ences which  preclude  the  idea  of  an  official  infallible  head; 
supremacy  belonged  to  no  man.  The  priesthood  ceased  to  be 
official  by  being  made  universal.  The  Christians'  society  or 
brotherhood  of  Christ  was  itself  a  priesthood.  The  sacrifices 
it  offered  were  spiritual  in  nature,  living  men,  the  gift  and 
beneficences  which  are  acceptable  to  God,  and  the  praise  God 
loves;  these  are  the  obligations  laid  upon  Jesus*  followers. 

"The  Christian  religion,"  says  Dr.  Fairbairn,  "stood  among 
the  ancient  faiths  as  a  strange  and  extraordinary  thing — a 
priestless  religion  without  the  symbols,  sacrifices,  ceremonies, 
officiate,  hitherto  held  save  by  prophetic  Hebraism  to  be  the  re- 
ligious all  and  all.  And  it  so  stood  because  its  God  did  not 
need  to  be  propitiated  but  was  propitious,  supplying  the  only 
priest  and  sacrifice  equal  to  His  honor  and  the  sins  and  wants 
of  man.  In  that  hour  God  became  a  new  Being  to  man,  and 
man  knew  himself  to  be  more  than  a  mere  creature  and  sub- 
ject— a  Son  of  the  loving  God." 

"The  work  of  Roman  Catholicism,"  continues  Dr.  Fair- 
bairn, "may  have  been  needed,  for  man  is  incapable  of  transi- 
tions at  once  sudden  and  absolute;  the  construction  of  Chris- 
tianity through  the  media  of  the  older  religions  was  a  neces- 

329 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

sary  prelude  to  its  construction  by  a  spirit  and  through  a  con- 
sciousness of  its  own  creation.  The  absolute  ideal  had  in  order 
to  be  intelligible  to  use  constituted  and  familiar  vehicles; 
but  only  that  it  might  win  the  opportunity  of  fashioning  vehicles 
worthier  of  its  nature  and  fitter  for  its  end."^ 

Is  it,  then,  the  intention  of  those  in  charge  of  the  laymen's 
missionary  movement  to  carry  on  a  propaganda  for  such  a  re- 
ligion as  that  which  Jesus  taught  and  embodied  in  His  life,  by 
means  and  methods  worthier  of  its  nature  and  fitter  to  its  ends 
than  those  which  organized  Christianity  supplies?  Or  will  it 
blindly  and  fatuously  accept  the  doctrine  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity that  man  is  an  alien  in  this  world;  that  he  is  a  fallen 
being,  hopelessly  wicked  and  tending  downward  by  nature; 
that  God  is  alienated  from  His  children  and  must  be  propi- 
tiated by  sacrifice,  vicarious  or  otherwise,  and  if  so,  will  it 
instruct  its  missionary  representatives  to  undertake  the  fruit- 
less task  of  trying  to  secure  the  acceptance  of  these  doctrines 
by  the  heathen  world  together  with  other  obscure  dogmas  and 
archaic  creeds  the  result  of  compromises  in  turbulent  ecumen- 
ical councils? 

Will  the  only  offer  to  the  wretched  and  downtrodden  be  the 
hope  of  a  future  compensation  in  a  world  to  come,  about  which 
no  definite  information  can  be  vouchsafed  ?  Will  the  mission- 
aries offer  to  the  poor  heathen,  multitudes  of  whom  are  lodged 
in  an  imperfect,  feeble  and  suffering  body,  any  prospect  of 
relief  this  side  of  the  grave,  or  will  they  teach  that  deliverance 
must  come  through  death  ? 

The  western  world  has  emphatically  rejected  those  notions 
and  beliefs  because  inconsistent  with  a  human,  civilized  or 
worthy  idea  of  God  as  the  Creator  of  the  human  race.  Has  the 
laymen's  missionary  movement  any  valid  reason  for  believing 
that  the  eastern  world  will  be  ready  to  accept  what  the  western 

^Catholicism,  Roman  and  Anglican,  page  167. 

330 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

world  has  rejected?  The  ordinary  consolations  of  institutional 
Christianity  no  longer  satisfy  intelligent  people  whose  lives 
are  broken  by  sickness  or  the  premature  death  of  those  they 
love.  Will  a  religion  which  offers  such  consolation  be  likely 
to  win  converts  any  more  readily  among  the  Asiatic  nations 
than  among  our  own  people  ? 

Theologians  who  thought  they  knew  the  mind  of  God  and 
could  understand  and  define  the  terms  upon  which  deific  jus- 
tice would  be  administered  have  condemned  the  greater  part 
of  mankind  to  eternal  torment.  Will  this  sort  of  scholastic 
theology  be  the  kind  that  the  missionary  workers  will  be  called 
upon  to  teach  and  enforce?  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  will  they 
seek  to  maintain  the  claims  of  the  church  to  the  exclusive  pos- 
session of  the  means  of  deliverance  from  the  wrath  of  God  and 
try  to  use  this  authority  as  a  restraining  influence  over  the 
sinners  of  the  heathen  world,  and  as  a  means  of  bringing  them 
to  adopt  the  Christian  religion  ? 

In  all  seriousness  can  these  missionaries  make  such  preten- 
sions? But,  assume  for  a  moment  that  they  refuse  to  teach 
these  perverse  and  repudiated  doctrines,  the  question  would 
immediately  arise,  what  particular  church  doctrines  will  they 
substitute  ?  The  trouble  is  that  this  question  is  one  that  neither 
they  nor  the  churches  which  they  represent  are  able  to  answer 
in  a  form  generally  acceptable  to  the  various  branches  of  or- 
ganized Christianity. 

The  missionaries  who  embark  from  our  shores  leave  behind 
them  conflicts  still  raging  between  materialism  and  Christian 
idealism.  This  age  is  in  revolt  against  time-worn  and  out-lived 
religious  dogmas,  waves  of  reform  are  sweeping  through  and 
over  organized  Christianity  and  threaten  to  submerge  it.  These 
missionaries  must  also  realize,  to  some  extent  at  least,  the 
serious  effect  which  modern  philosophy,  ethical  theories,  social 
hopes  and  democratic  principles  are  having  upon  organized 
Christianity.     Conscious  of  the  fact  that  traditional  dogmas 

331 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

and  formal  creeds  are  being  more  and  more  discredited  in  this 
country,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  population,  and  par- 
ticularly in  Protestant  countries,  have  abandoned  the  churches 
of  to-day,  would  not  these  missionaries  be  likely  to  lose  heart 
and  yield  to  a  feeling  of  great  discouragement  at  the  very 
outset  of  their  task? 

As  representatives  of  the  religion  of  Christ  Jesus  the  ques- 
tion recurs :  with  what  credentials  shall  they  be  invested  by 
organized  Christianity?  What  are  the  doctrines  and  discipline, 
the  means  and  methods  of  realizing  religion  which  will  com- 
mend the  unanimous  approval  of  the  different  churches  which 
contribute  to  their  support  and  which  they  are  to  make  use  of 
in  building  up  Christian  churches  in  foreign  lands? 

An  authoritative  church  has  tried  to  force  everybody  within 
its  reach  to  hold  the  same  opinions  and  unite  in  the  same  ob- 
servances. Will  these  missionaries  seek  to  enforce  the  author- 
ity of  that  church  upon  all  heathen  converts  ?  Will  it  mean  for 
heathendom  submission  to  the  authority  of  the  Roman  church 
or  to  the  authority  and  ritual  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
church  ?  Or  must  heathen  converts  subscribe  to  the  tenets  and 
doctrinal  beliefs  of  the  Methodist  church,  whose  provisions 
for  discipline  in  the  regulation  of  their  social  life  they  must 
accept?  Or  will  this  force  of  40,000  workers  be  so  apportioned 
that  some  will  work  to  make  Roman  Catholic  converts,  others 
to  make  Baptist  converts,  others  Lutheran  converts,  etc.  ?  And 
if  they  succeed  in  building  up  churches  in  foreign  lands  how 
will  they  escape  the  competitions,  the  rivalries,  the  discords 
and  controversies  of  organized  Christianity  which  obtain  in 
the  western  world? 

Diversity  of  religious  belief  in  America  is  expressed  in 
two  hundred  or  more  different  Christian  denominations  or 
sects.  All  of  them  profess  to  worship  the  same  God  and  to  ac- 
cept the  teachings  of  the  same  Bible,  and  yet  are  unable  to  come 
to  any  agreement  as  to  doctrinal  belief,  dogma,  creed,  ritual  or 

332 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

polity,  or  to  command  the  devotion  of  more  than  a  fraction  of 
the  population.  Will  Christian  church  unity  under  these  con- 
ditions be  any  more  likely  to  prevail  in  heathen  than  in  Chris- 
tian lands?  Or  will  these  missionaries  of  the  laymen's  move- 
ment undertake  to  create  a  new  religious  caste,  some  ecclesias- 
tical class,  or  exclusive  religious  sect  founded  on  a  rite,  and 
supported  by  threats  of  eternal  damnation,  or  by  promises  of 
a  future  state  of  blessedness,  and  if  so,  would  it  prove  a  more 
successful  religious  propaganda  than  is  now  conducted  by  any 
of  the  numberless  sects  into  which  organized  Christianity  is 
now  divided? 

The  fear  of  hell  as  a  deterrent  force,  or  the  hope  of  heaven 
as  an  inducement  to  become  Christians,  have  become  less  and 
less  efficient  or  successful  in  society  at  large.  There  is  a  grow- 
ing multitude  of  men  and  women  who  would  hardly  feel  any 
appreciable  loss  of  motive  power  toward  good  or  away  from 
evil,  if  heaven  was  blotted  out  of  the  firmament  of  human 
belief,  and  hell  destroyed  by  its  own  internal  fires.  The  pre- 
vailing Christian  conceptions  of  these  two  places  have  hardly 
any  more  influence  upon  the  minds  of  educated  people  in  these 
days  than  the  mythologies  of  the  ancients,  and  this  would  be 
quite  as  true  of  the  nations  of  the  far  East  as  it  is  of  this 
country. 

Christian  Science  Considered. 

The  question,  therefore,  persistently  recurs,  what  is  the 
form  or  manner  in  which  the  religion  of  Christ  Jesus  can  best 
be  presented  to  the  world,  by  means  of  which  this  great  lay- 
men's missionary  movement  can  carry  on  the  most  effective 
propaganda  for  Christianity? 

If  it  is  not  to  be  found  either  in  Roman  Catholicism  or  in 
Protestantism;  if  ecclesiastical  systems  constructed  by  merr 
find  no  sanction  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  or  the  institutions  of 
the  early  Christian  church;  if,  as  the  Churchman  pertinently 

333 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

remarks,  "these  systems  have  rent  the  Lord's  body  in  its  out- 
ward and  visible  form,  and  hindered  the  united  witness  of  the 
church  to  the  unity  of  the  divine  and  human  which  it  pos- 
sesses in  Christ,  through  Christ,  and  from  Christ";  then 
through  what  means  and  methods  can  the  Christian  rehgion  be 
reaHzed  in  the  Uves  of  its  followers  as  to  become  the  effective 
means  whereby  the  heathen  nations  may  be  won  to  Christianity, 
won  as  Jesus  has  commanded  ?  It  is  a  question  which  those  at 
the  back  of  this  laymen's  missionary  movement  must  squarely 
face  and  settle  at  the  outset  as  a  condition  precedent  to  any 
successful  attempt  to  secure  the  necessary  financial  backing 
from  the  great  body  of  intelligent  business  men  in  this  country. 

The  position  of  the  Christian  Science  Church,  which  is  the 
antithesis,  in  many  respects,  of  both  Roman  and  Protestant 
churches,  becomes,  therefore,  a  matter  worthy  of  considera- 
tion. Is  it  a  relevant  form  of  the  Christian  religion?  Are  its 
means  and  methods  worthier  of  the  nature  and  fitter  to  the 
ends  of  that  religion  than  that  of  organized  Christianity?  Let 
us  take  a  look  in  an  impartial  and  dispassionate  manner  at  some 
of  the  facts  in  this  connection,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  lay 
observer : 

"This  wordy  world,"  says  Cardinal  Manning,  "can  drown 
all  testimony  except  the  witness  of  visible  acts.  Words  are 
transitory  things,  but  acts  leave  their  token  behind  them." 
The  Great  Teacher  enunciated  this  same  thought  thus:  "By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  The  Christian  Science 
Church  offers  the  world  not  simply  mere  doctrine,  but  the 
demonstration  of  its  verity  and  vitality  by  acts  and  fruitage 
which  can  be  seen  and  known  of  all  men.  We  find  here  a 
church  which  unites  instead  of  divides  men  into  a  multitude  of 
competing  religious  sects.  It  exalts  the  moral  and  the  spirit- 
ual worth  of  all  humanity.  It  declares  man's  true  relationship 
to  God,  it  presents  the  Christ-Truth  coupled  with  the  demon- 
stration of  its  power  to  set  men  free,  to  accomplish  complete 

334 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 

redemption.  It  is  free  from  ecclesiastical  entanglements,  free 
from  the  dogmas,  traditions  and  institutions  of  organized 
Christianity,  which  for  ages  have  been  the  subject  of  contro- 
versy and  discord.  It  has  undertaken  to  unify  and  is  exempli- 
fying the  unity  and  simplicity  of  the  faith  and  works  and 
worship  of  the  early  Christian  church;  it  is  restoring  the  lost 
element  of  healing  to  Christianity. 

The  Catholicism  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  large,  but  there 
is  one  still  larger,  the  Catholicism  of  the  Christian  religion. 
The  Christian  Science  Church  exemplifies  this  larger  Cathol- 
icism in  that  it  presents  the  universalism  of  Christ  instead  of 
the  specialism  of  the  orthodox  churches.  It  has  furnished  an 
exalted  and  worthy  conception  of  God  and  a  nobler  view  of  the 
nature  and  destiny  of  man.  It  is  a  demonstrable  religion  known 
by  its  fruits,  which  are  those  of  peace,  and  love,  and  freedom 
from  the  bondage  of  fear,  and  the  domination  of  sin,  disease 
and  mortality.  It  is  repeating  the  history  of  the  early  church, 
by  proving  itself  the  greatest  missionary  movement  since  the 
days  of  the  Apostles.  Already  its  followers  are  to  be  found  in 
almost  every  country  on  the  face  of  the  globe;  it  is  planting 
its  churches  and  societies  all  over  the  world  and  doing  this 
with  a  rapidity  analogous  to  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  the 
first  few  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 

The  Christian  Science  Church  presents  the  spectacle  of  a 
church  at  peace  with  itself;  united  in  doctrinal  beliefs  and  its 
confession  of  faith;  in  its  form  of  worship  and  in  its  organ- 
ization and  methods  of  discipline.  It  is  based  on  the  inspired 
word  of  God  as  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  exalts  the 
Christ-Truth ;  its  followers  seek  to  know  that  Mind  which  was 
in  Christ  Jesus  and  to  acquire  the  power  to  demonstrate  Truth 
and  so  to  present  Jesus'  test,  "He  that  believeth  in  Me,  the 
works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also." 

Where  organized  Christianity  is  weak,  by  reason  of  its 
sectarianism,  its  divisions  and  controversies,  we  find  the  Chris- 

335 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

tian  Science  Church  to  be  strong  in  its  freedom  from  all  eccle- 
siastical or  institutional  forms,  ceremonies,  rituals,  creeds  or 
theological  bickerings.  Where  orthodox  Christianity  is  weak, 
in  that  blind  belief  has  destroyed  its  power  to  perform,  except 
in  part,  the  work  committed  to  it  by  its  great  Founder,  Chris- 
tian Science  is  strong,  in  that  it  accepts  Jesus'  commission  to 
not  only  preach  the  gospel  but  to  heal  the  sick.  It  honors  Jesus 
by  fulfilling  the  commission  in  its  entirety. 

Where  origanized  Christianity  is  weak  in  spirituality,  is  de- 
pendent upon  adventitious  aids,  and  is  fast  degenerating  into  a 
mere  social  club,  devoid  of  spiritual  power,  the  Christian 
Science  Church  is  strong  in  the  strength  of  a  vital,  demon- 
strable religion,  which  manifests  itself  in  the  happy  lives  of  its 
adherents,  its  crowded  Sabbath  services  and  week-night  testi- 
mony meetings  and  lectures,  at  which,  in  some  instances,  as 
many  as  1,500  or  more  persons  have  risen  at  a  time  to  testify 
to  their  personal  experience  of  the  healing  and  saving  power 
of  the  Truth  which  Christian  Science  has  brought  to  this  age. 

Where  organized  Christianity  fails  in  the  religious  educa- 
tion of  its  membership,  the  Christian  Science  Church  is  pre- 
eminent by  reason  of  its  systematic  study  of  the  Bible  to  an  ex- 
tent unequaled  by  any  other  religious  denomination  in  existence. 

The  Christian  Science  Church  is  a  united  church  through- 
out the  whole  range  of  its  activities  whether  conducted  in  this 
country  or  abroad.  Wherever  it  has  secured  a  foothold  the 
same  unity  of  faith  and  form  of  worship  and  activity  obtains. 
If  we  study  its  organization  and  growth,  we  find  the  Christian 
Science  Church  avoids  the  economic  wastes  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity, occasioned  by  needless  duplication  of  churches  and  the 
consequent  excessive  cost  of  maintenance.  Furthermore,  being 
free  from  rival  sects  or  parties  within  its  own  organization  it 
is  not  subject  to  the  competition  incident  to  the  different 
branches  of  organized  Christianity,  and  the  same   favorable 

Z36 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

conditions  would  obtain  in  missionary  work  conducted  on  its 
behalf  in  foreign  countries. 

Can  there  be  any  doubt  in  the  minds  of  those  at  the  head 
of  the  laymen's  missionary  movement  that  the  world  of  to-day 
is  as  ready  to  accept  that  kind  of  propaganda  for  Christianity 
as  it  was  nineteen  centuries  ago?  The  cumulative  evidence  of 
such  an  acceptance  on  its  part  which  the  success  of  the  Chris- 
tian Science  movement  affords,  cannot  well  be  overlooked  in 
this  connection. 

What  this  age  demands  is  a  religion  based  on  the  healing 
and  saving  power  of  the  Truth  which  Christ  Jesus  came  to 
reveal.  It  asks  for  a  demonstrable  religion  that  is  reflected  in 
the  personal  experience  of  men  and  women  everywhere  who 
have  been  delivered  by  it  from  the  bondage  of  sin,  disease  and 
mortality.  It  demands  a  religion  which  is  not  one  of  mere 
creed  and  dogma  and  institution ;  which  does  not  express  itself 
in  opposition  to  the  great  movements  of  modern  society,  such 
as  democracy  and  social  or  economic  idealism,  nor  condemn  a 
zeal  for  education  or  the  spirit  of  modern  research.  It  de- 
mands a  religion  that  seeks,  first  and  foremost,  to  unite  all 
men  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  and  in  the  understand- 
ing of  man  as  made  in  God's  image  and  likeness,  wherein  is 
to  be  found  the  basis  for  the  true  brotherhood  of  man  and  that 
universalism  of  the  religion  of  Christ  Jesus,  which  will  usher 
in  the  reign  of  "peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men"  of  which  the 
angels  sang  nineteen  centuries  ago. 

A  missionary  propaganda  for  the  extension  of  such  a  re- 
ligion would  indeed  be  worth  while.  Could  it  be  considered 
representative  of  organized  Christianity  as  it  stands  to-day? 

Some  Conclusions. 

The  time  is  ripe  for  the  second  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man 
in  the  demonstration  of  the  power  of  the  Truth  which  makes 
men  free.    The  heathen  world  is  ready  to  welcome  deliverance 

337 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

from  the  despotisms  of  earth,  from  the  superstitions  and  an- 
cient dogmas  which  have  so  long  held  them  in  bondage  to 
error.  Among  the  people  of  Asiatic  nations  there  are  many- 
indications  of  an  awakened  consciousness.  The  far  East  has 
been  absorbing  the  practical  benefits  of  our  civilization;  it  is 
developing  both  educationally  and  industrially  at  a  tremendous 
rate.  Religious  antagonism  is  becoming  less  pronounced.  De- 
velopments along  these  lines  are  a  hopeful  sign  and  portent  of 
the  successful  introduction  of  a  pure  type  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, when  presented  under  proper  auspices. 

Scholastic  theology  has  made  of  the  Christian  religion  a 
pessimistic  philosophy  of  life;  it  has  depicted  the  terrors  of  a 
future  state  of  torment  as  a  motive  to  repentance,  and  sought 
to  win  the  world  to  Christ  by  a  system  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments which  find  no  sanction  in  the  Scriptures.  The  Christian 
Science  new-old  theology  is  one  of  optimism;  it  exalts  the 
spiritual  worth  and  dignity  of  man;  it  destroys  the  illusions 
which  have  held  the  human  race  in  bondage  to  fear  and  disease 
and  mortality ;  it  demonstrates  the  healing,  saving  power  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  If  placed  side  by  side  with  the  Christianity  of 
the  so-called  orthodox  churches,  divided,  distracted,  schismatic, 
weakened  by  internal  divisions  and  competitions,  would  any 
doubt  exist  as  to  the  choice  which  heathenism  would  make,  any 
question  as  to  which  type  of  missionary  the  laymen's  mission- 
ary movement  should  send  abroad  and  with  what  credentials 
if  it  is  to  accomplish  its  task  of  inducing  the  rest  of  the  human 
race  to  embrace  Christianity  within  a  reasonably  early  period 
of  time. 

Is  it  not  apparent,  then,  that  through  the  Christian  Science 
Church,  the  Christian  religion  can  be  made  practical  and  ac- 
ceptable to  heathendom,  judging  not  only  from  a  spiritual,  but 
also  from  a  purely  utilitarian  standpoint? 

Were  a  body  of  40,000  Christian  Science  practitioners  sent 
abroad  to  demonstrate  the  healing  power  of  the  gospel  of  Christ 

338 


THE  LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

as  it  is  being  demonstrated  in  this  country  upon  an  individual, 
self-supporting  basis,  in  the  simple  unobtrusive  forms  and 
methods  of  the  Christian  Science  propaganda;  were  this  mis- 
sionary movement  to  be  conducted  through  the  channels  open 
to  Christian  Science  in  foreign  lands,  where  it  already  has  a 
foothold;  were  it  backed  by  a  fund  of  $55,000,000  per  annum 
for  the  next  thirty-five  years,  is  there  not  a  strong  probability, 
amounting  to  certainty,  that  Japan  would  be  among  the  first  to 
adopt  the  Christian  Science  type  of  the  Christian  religion  on 
the  ground  of  its  practicability,  and  thus  become  a  Christian 
nation?  And  would  not  other  heathen  nations  follow  its  ex- 
ample ;  in  fact,  would  not  a  greater  work  of  Christian  evangel- 
ization be  thus  accomplished  in  the  next  thirty-five  years  than 
through  any  other  means  or  methods  which  it  would  be  pos- 
sible for  the  laymen's  missionary  movement  to  adopt  or  employ? 

What  is  the  real,  the  vital  significance  of  this  proposed 
grand  latter-day  laymen's  missionary  movement?  Does  it  not 
bring  us  fairly  and  squarely  face  to  face  with  the  great  ques- 
tion of  church  unity,  which  we  have  discussed  at  some  length 
in  a  previous  chapter?  Does  not  the  very  proposition  itself 
place  a  tremendous  emphasis  upon  the  necessity  which  organ- 
ized Christianity  is  under  to  compose  its  sectarian  differences, 
to  cast  away  its  outlived  theological  creeds  and  dogmas  and 
doctrines  and  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  work  of 
converting  the  heathen  world  to  the  Christianity  of  the  New 
Testament  type.  In  thus  helping  the  heathen,  Christianity  will 
help  itself  in  a  most  effectual  way. 

"The  recovery  of  ourselves  from  the  sin  of  division,"  says 
the  Churchman,  "is  the  grave  problem  that  is  before  Christen- 
dom and  is  blocking  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth." 

The  laymen's  missionary  movement,  if  it  means  anything, 
means  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  in  Christian  evangelization.  It 
means  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  greater  than  mere 

339 


'ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

sect  or  creed  or  dogma  and  doctrine;  that  the  creed  of  Christ 
and  the  gospel  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  fundamental  basis 
of  agreement  upon  which  alone  the  church  can  hope  to  conduct 
its  missionary  operations  successfully.  An  awakening  is  taking 
place  in  Christendom.  The  conviction  is  becoming  more  pre- 
valent that  Christianity  must  become  united  or  else  it  must 
confront  a  more  serious  question  than  the  saving  of  the 
heathen,  even  the  preservation  of  its  very  existence  as  a  re- 
ligious organization.  The  laymen's  missionary  workers  can- 
not undertake  to  meet  on  foreign  territory  to  duplicate  the 
rivalries,  the  discords  and  the  combats  of  divergent  sects, 
quarreling  among  themselves  as  to  which  has  the  better  brand 
of  Christianity  to  offer.  Such  a  condition  of  affairs  would 
only  invite  the  contempt  and  derision  of  those  they  are  trying 
to  save. 

The  conclusion  is  irresistible.  Organized  Christianity  can 
never  bring  about  the  brotherhood  of  man,  either  on  these 
shores  or  on  any  other  shores,  on  the  basis  of  its  present  sec- 
tarianism and  institutionalism.  God's  judgment  has  been  al- 
ready pronounced  upon  it  for  its  great  sin  of  division.  The 
handwriting  is  upon  the  wall  in  characters  which  need  no  seer 
to  interpret  their  meaning. 

The  question  becomes,  therefore,  a  very  pertinent  one  in 
this  connection :  Is  the  Christian  Science  movement  which  is 
restoring  to  this  age  primitive  Christianity  with  its  lost  ele- 
ment of  healing,  destined  to  become  the  medium  of  that  great 
reconciliation  of  the  Christian  sects  and  for  that  grand  con- 
sensus of  Christian  doctrine  which  will  bind  all  the  nations 
into  one  faith  and  brotherhood  and  bring  all  Christians  into 
one  church,  one  fold,  with  one  Shepherd,  the  Christ  of  God, 
"of  whose  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end"? 

Members  of  the  Jury  of  the  Vicinage,  judge  ye  and  make 
answer  herein. 


340 


VI. 

HUMANITY:  THE  HEIR. 

Members  of  the  Jury  of  the  Vicinage : 

Here  we  near  the  end  of  our  not  untoilsome  journey,  as  of 
one  who  has  traversed  many  pathways  and  gathered  the  fruit- 
age of  many  a  harvest  field.  And  if  you  should  have  so  far 
honored  this  endeavor  of  mine  as  to  read  what  is  written  herein, 
and  have  found  it  written  not  altogether  vainly,  let  me  offer  a 
concluding  word,  face  to  face. 

The  task  to  which  I  have  called  you  is  a  high  and  glorious 
one.  It  is  to  make  answer  concerning  issues  of  transcendent 
interest  to  the  whole  human  family;  it  is  to  voice  a  higher 
order  of  science,  which  shall  not  only  be  scientific  but  re- 
ligious ;  it  is  to  declare  the  truth  which  mankind  is  seeking  to 
know  and  which  some  day  will  surely  liberate  the  human  mind 
from  the  tyranny  of  materialistic  and  academic  formulas  and 
abstract  and  arid  creeds. 

It  is  a  call  to  get  below  the  outward  sense  of  things  to  the 
realities  veiled  behind  the  symbols;  to  make  those  realities 
plain  to  human  consciousness,  so  that  to  the  man  whose  be- 
liefs are  firmly  based  upon  his  own  eyesight,  there  may  come 
enlargement  of  vision  and  a  better  understanding  of  the  truth 
which  underlies  all  phenomena  and  all  thought. 

Multitudes  of  men  and  women  everywhere,  of  unpreju- 
diced minds,  athirst  in  the  desert  are  seeking  the  water  brooks 
and  flowing  fountains.  Give  them  the  water  of  life  that  it  may 
be  within  them  "a.  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life." 

341      • 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

Give  them  a  nobler  concept  of  God  and  man,  that  thus  you 
may  open  the  door  to  physical  and  spiritual  freedom  and  so 
bring  deliverance  from  that  which  binds  and  enslaves  the 
spirit  and  robs  life  of  its  true  heritage.  They  are  my  clients 
in  this  case;  the  plaintiffs  in  this  action.  They  are  the  heirs 
of  the  ages  whose  birthright  is  truth  and  whose  right  it  is  to 
have  dominion  over  all  the  earth. 

My  clients  are  seeking  light  and  freedom ;  withhold  it  not 
from  them.  Strike  off  the  shackles  which  hamper  the  free 
exercise  of  the  mind ;  set  free  the  imprisoned  thought.  Amid 
the  decay  and  wreckage  of  faded  traditions  and  outworn  dog- 
mas and  creeds,  let  us  construct  a  temple  of  Truth  which  will 
abide  forever.  Let  us  help  to  "ring  out  the  false,"  to  "ring 
in  the  true." 

Give  to  men  and  women  that  which  will  help  them  to  live, 
and  to  live  more  truly.  Give  them  leave  to  grow,  leave  to 
hope,  and  to  hope  truly.  More  and  more  are  they  longing  for 
a  brighter  day.  The  hearts  of  men  are  going  out  with  long- 
ing for  some  supreme  good,  for  some  unveiling  of  the  true 
source  of  inspiration  and  strength,  some  revelation  of  divine 
wisdom ;  to  find  and  know  a  living  God  with  whom  they  may 
stand  in  an  intimate  and  trustful  relation.  The  world  has 
waited  long  for  a  new  word  of  hope,  for  a  new  evangel  of 
cheer  and  blessing;  for  that  which  will  liberate  the  lofty  po- 
tentialities of  the  soul,  and  form  and  fashion  anew  the  larger 
hopes  and  loftier  ideals  of  life.  Let  us  then  bear  a  helpful 
part  in  removing  the  ignorance,  the  pride  and  the  prejudice 
which  have  been  for  so  long  stumbling  blocks  in  man's  pro- 
gress, so  that  fresh  powers,  fresh  beauties,  new  characteristics 
may  mark  the  upward  advancement  of  the  human  race. 

Bid  every  sufferer  longing  for  better  things,  every  captive 
in  a  dungeon,  every  slave  bleeding  under  the  lash,  to  come 
forth  to  light  and  liberty,  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  inalienable 
rights  as  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Most  High.    Give  men  and 

342 


HUMANITY:     THE   HEIR 

women  of  every  race  and  clime,  in  subjection  to  a  more  de- 
basing slavery  than  that  of  the  African,  but  found  on  higher 
planes  of  existence,  to  know  that  the  higher  law  of  divine 
Mind  will  end  all  human  bondage  to  laws  of  custom,  belief 
and  disease. 

"Then  shall  the  reign  of  Mind  commence  on  earth, 
And  starting  fresh,  as  from  a  second  birth ; 
Man  in  the  sunshine  of  the  world's  new  spring,  - 
Shall  walk  transparent  like  some  holy  thing." 

Let  us  guard  against  attaching  undue  importance  to  ma- 
terialistic doctrines  or  of  relying  wholly  upon  the  evidence 
of  the  physical  senses,  as  expressed  in  the  conclusions  of 
natural  science.  Things  of  the  Spirit  are  truly  substantial  to 
spiritual  sense,  even  though  natural  science,  based  upon  phys- 
ical phenomena  solely,  is  unable  to  perceive  them.  The  in- 
visible things  of  mind  and  spirit,  while  they  cannot  be  shown 
under  the  lens  of  the  microscope  nor  made  to  respond  to  chem- 
ical reagents,  are  yet  the  most  potent  forces  in  the  world. 

Jesus  Christ  came  to  tell  us  what  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
really  is.  In  many  parables  he  tried  to  make  it  clear  to  us. 
He  found  no  easy  task,  but  it  was  His  central  message,  His 
constant  endeavor,  to  convey  some  sense  of  the  reality  and 
meaning  of  that  Kingdom,  and  how  it  may  be  actually  realized 
on  earth.  Hear  these  noble  words  written  by  Charles  Cuth- 
bert  Hall,  prophetic  of  that  new  heaven  and  new  earth  to 
which  Christian  faith  and  hope  has  ever  turned : 

"Christ  has  taught  us  to  pray  for  the  hastening  of  a  new 
dispensation,  for  the  passing  away  of  the  broken  order,  ir 
which  the  will  of  God  is  not  done,  in  which  sickness  and 
death  are  constant  protests  against  His  will,  and  for  the  com- 
ing in  of  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth,  glorious  with  the 
kingship  of  Jesus  realized  upon  it ;  an  earth  in  which  there  will 
be  no  more  death,  nor  pain,  nor  sorrow,  nor  crying,  no  more 
of  anything  contrary  to  our  Father's  loving  will.  An  earth  in 
which  His  will  shall  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

343 


ALTAR  FIRES  RELIGHTED 

At  no  time  since  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  have 
spiritual  forces  been  more  powerfully  at  work  than  to-day  in 
the  vital  struggles  of  humanity  to  keep  God  alive  in  its 
thought;  to  bring  to  earth  the  kingdom  of  heaven  for  which 
Jesus  Christ  wrought  among  men.  Old  structures  of  belief 
which  for  centuries  have  sheltered  many  a  worthless  creed 
or  dogma  or  mere  illusion,  are  crumbling  into  ruins.  Falsity 
is  melting  away  in  the  intellectual  and  religious  climate  of  a 
wiser  age,  an  age  rising  to  the  conception  of  man  as  a  perfect 
being  in  conscious  union  with  the  entire  scheme  of  existence, 
an  age  identical  with  perfect  freedom  and  wherein  man  will 
respond  to  none  but  the  highest  motives. 

The  world  is  beginning  to  understand  that  man  is  one  with 
the  universal  Principle ;  that  he  is  made  in  the  image  and  like- 
ness of  the  infinite  Creator  and  reflects  the  divine  intelligence 
and  love;  that  the  divinity  within  him — responsive  to  his  in- 
vocation— can  produce  unending  harmonies;  that  health  and 
happiness  are  free  to  all.  No  longer  ignorant  of  the  forces, 
which  in  earlier  ages  seemed  supernatural,  man  is  learning  to 
utilize  the  mighty  powers  both  without  and  within  himself. 
His  birthright  is  dominion,  not  subjection.  "He  is  an  heir 
apparent  in  training;  some  day  he  will  reign." 

Christian  idealism  sounds  a  newer,  a  more  inspiring,  more 
confident  note  in  these  days  of  spiritual  awakening.  It  is 
the  note  of  optimism,  of  mental  power.  The  universe  spells 
victory,  not  defeat.  Man  is  an  evolving  soul  upon  the  path 
of  attainment.  He  may  stand  erect  and  looking  at  the  uni- 
verse with  fearless  eyes,  may  assert  his  spiritual  kinship  with 
the  Infinite  and  come  into  the  understanding  of  his  divine 
rights  and  heaven-bestowed  harmony. 

Christian  Science  has  drawn  up  the  Scriptures  of  the  New 
World,  the  great  canon  of  the  Book  of  Hope,  the  true  hope 
that  hath  its  foundations  laid  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Christ- 
Truth  which  frees  the  soul  from  its  bondage  to  material  sense. 

344 


HUMANITY:     THE    HEIR 

It  comes  as  an  evangel  of  these  latter  days,  an  evangel  of  hope 
and  good  cheer,  a  messenger  of  glad  tidings  which  shall  be 
to  all  people.  In  the  language  of  one  who  will  not  be  charged 
with  over-partiality  for  the  Christian  Science  cause:  "it  has 
revolutionized  the  lives  of  its  followers;  it  has  banished  the 
gloom  which  has  shadowed  them;  it  has  lifted  them  out  of 
grief  and  care  and  doubt  and  fear  and  made  their  lives  beauti- 
ful. It  has  brought  healing,  not  only  of  the  body  but  of  the 
persecuted  spirit  of  man ;  it  has  banished  his  troubles  and  kept 
his  life  serene,  sunny  and  contented."  ^ 

Fear  has  put  its  curse  upon  the  life  of  every  human  being. 
It  is  the  great  enemy  which  mankind  has  to  fight.  And  the 
story  of  Christian  Science  is  the  story  of  the  conquest  of  fear, 
not  by  hope  only,  which  one  has  called  "the  pull  of  heaven," 
but  by  Truth,  the  Christ-Truth  which  makes  man  free  indeed. 
It  corrects  the  delusions,  the  errors  of  material  sense  and 
dispels  the  unnumbered  fears  which  torment  and  afflict  the 
human  race. 

The  veil  is  being  lifted  from  the  darkened  understanding 
of  every  seeker  after  God.  All  the  promises  He  has  made,  all 
the  purposes  He  has  revealed,  are  operative  in  the  eternal 
present.  They  are  not  and  never  were  confined  to  a  limited 
people  and  a  restricted  period  but  embrace  the  whole  human 
race.    His  word  endureth  unto  all  generations. 

Man  is  neither  a  bondservant  nor  a  criminal ;  he  is  a  son. 
The  real  man  is  even  now  made  in  the  image  and  likeness  of 
God  and  is  therefore  of  His  essence.  The  old  conception  that 
humanity  is  doomed  to  destruction  is  giving  place  to  the  under- 
standing that  it  is  the  sin  and  not  the  sinner  that  must  perish. 

This  is  the  day  of  salvation — of  the  restoration  to  whole- 
ness of  the  entire  man;  an  age  when  the  world  is  beginning 
to  realize  that  to  "dwell  in  love"  and  so  "dwell  in  God"  not 


^  Mark  Twain,  in  Christian  Science,  pages  286-287. 

345 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

only  gives  us  the  mastery  over  sin,  sickness  and  death,  but 
over  the  forces  of  nature  and  the  powers  of  darkness — even  that 
mastery  which  Jesus  Christ  demonstrated  in  His  own  day  and 
generation.  This  is  the  priceless  legacy  which  He  bequeathed 
to  His  immediate  followers  and  to  all — even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world — who  should  believe  on  Him  who  is  the  Way,  the 
Truth  and  the  Life,  and  who  thus  may  come  into  harmony 
with  the  great  law  of  the  eternal  Mind. 

Members  of  the  Jury : 

This  is  the  spring  time  of  a  new  life  for  humanity  in  which 
the  world  is  moving  to  new  religious  influences  and  impulses ; 
an  era  when  men  everywhere  are  beginning  to  realize  their 
kinship  with  the  Infinite.  The  dawn  of  a  brighter  day  in 
human  experience  is  upon  us.  Lead  my  clients  out  into  the 
fields,  into  the  fresh  air  of  heaven,  and  say  to  them  in  the 
language  of  the  author  of  the  "New  Word" : 

"This  is  the  day  of  the  buds.  The  winter  is  over,  the  spring 
is  here,  and  the  great  life  outside  us  is  renewing  itself  again. 
We  hope  that  it  is  telling  us  that  our  hfe,  too,  will  be  renewed, 
and  that  we  shall  go  on  from  life  to  life,  ever  learning  and 
knowing  more  and  more  of  that  Great  Life  that  our  forefathers 
called  God." 


346 


VII. 
THE  INFINITE  END. 

IN  that  famous  scene  in  Pilate's  Judgment  Hall  where  Jesus 
told  the  Roman  Governor,  "Everyone  that  is  of  the 
Truth  heareth  my  voice,"  Pilate  asked  the  one  momentous 
question  of  all  the  centuries:  "What  is  Truth?"  It  is  a  ques- 
tion the  ages  have  always  been  asking.  It  is  the  all-absorbing 
inquiry  of  to-day.  But  our  schools  of  philosophy  are  no  nearer 
the  solution  of  this  infinite  query  than  they  were  centuries 
ago,  nor  will  the  human  intellect,  even  in  its  highest  flights, 
ever  reach  the  goal  of  eager  pursuit  until  it  rests  in  an  unqual- 
ified acceptance  of  the  spiritual  unity  and  oneness  of  Truth  as 
of  God,  who  is  eternal,  unchangeable  Truth,  "the  same  yester- 
day, to-day  and  forever." 

The  materialistic  Roman  Procurator  cared  little  about  the 
spiritual  kingdom  which  Jesus  came  to  establish ;  he  cared  still 
less  as  to  Jesus'  claim  to  sonship  with  the  infinite  God  of 
Truth,  or  the  truth  which  Jesus  taught,  which  was  completely 
beyond  his  spiritual  apprehension.  Pilate  did  not  take  the 
trouble  to  wait  for  an  answer  to  his  half-wearied,  half-con- 
temptuous and  wholly  cynical  demand,  yet  he  needed  not,  nor 
does  this  age  need,  any  other  answer  than  the  Christ-man  who 
in  that  fateful  hour  stood  before  this  Roman  governor  antl 
declared  his  mission  to  bear  witness  to  the  Truth ;  nay,  more, 
who  said :    "I  am  the  Truth." 

He  stands  now,  as  then,  the  chosen  messenger  of  God  to 
man,  speaking  to  the  human  consciousness  the  words  of  eternal 
life;  He  personalized  the  truth,  that  absolute  truth  which  is  a 

347 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

revelation  of  God  and  from  God.  He  knew  more  about  God 
and  the  truth  of  being  than  any  other  man  of  whom  history- 
has  given  us  any  record,  and  He  did  more  personally  to  demon- 
strate what  God  is  and  what  He  does  than  any  other  person 
whoever  lived  among  men. 

That  which  was  written  by  Esdras,  **near  the  willow  fringed 
rivers  of  Babylon"  more  than  twenty-three  centuries  ago,  still 
holds  good  :  "As  for  Truth,  it  endureth  and  is  always  strong ; 
it  liveth  and  conquereth  forever  more."  Jesus  Christ,  who 
spake  as  never  man  spake,  taught  His  followers  that  knowl- 
edge of  the  Truth  which  He  had  given  to  them  will  make  men 
free  indeed.  The  winds  of  time  sweep  clean  the  centuries,  but 
they  have  not  swept  His  words  into  oblivion.  These  words 
hold  equally  good  to-day  as  when  they  were  spoken  nineteen 
centuries  ago. 

"Truth  is  sure  and  can  afford  to  wait  our  slow  perception. 

Her  essence  is  eternal  and  she  knows  the  world  must 

swing  around  to  her  soon  or  late." 

History  shows  Jesus  to  have  been  more  spiritual  than  all 
other  earthly  personalities.  He  stands  as  the  embodiment  of 
God's  spiritual  idea;  the  personification  of  truth  itself.  He 
represents  the  indestructible  man  whom  Spirit  creates,  con- 
stitutes and  governs;  He  illustrated  that  blending  with  the 
Maker  which  gives  man  dominion  over  all  the  earth. 

The  Christ-Truth  independent  of  creed  and  tradition,  of 
doctrine  and  dogma  and  time-honored  systems;  the  Christ- 
truth  which  endureth  unto  all  generations,  comes  as  of  yore 
the  answer  to  the  question  of  all  questions,  "What  is  Truth?" 
But  until  a  materialistic  age  is  ready  to  welcome  its  approach 
it  knocks  in  vain.  Until  ready  to  change  the  standpoints  of 
life  and  intelligence  from  a  material  to  a  spiritual  basis,  this 
age,  Hke  Pilate  of  old,  will  receive  no  adequate  answer  to  this 
question  of  questions;  mankind  will  still  fail  to  gain  the  per- 

348 


THE  INFINITE  END 

feet  life  or  control  of  Soul  over  sense;  or  to  receive  pure 
Christianity  or  Truth  in  its  divine  Principle.  This  change  of 
standpoint  must  needs  be  the  climax  wherein  harmonious  and 
immortal  man  will  be  fully  understood  and  his  capacities 
shown;  wherein  the  truth,  the  absolute  truth,  the  full,  exact 
and  scientific  knowledge  of  God  which  Jesus  taught  will  make 
men  free  will  become  the  possession  of  the  race. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  was 
the  result  of  a  revolt  against  a  grievous  condition  of  politics, 
religious  profligacy,  duplicity  and  immorality,  in  which  the  tone 
of  manners  and  morals  were  corrupt,  dissolute  and  a  disgrace 
to  Christian  civilization.  The  remedy  for  those  conditions  was 
found  in  a  return  to  the  purity  of  the  Christianity  of  the  New 
Testament. 

In  this  present  century  of  outlived  dogmas  and  creeds,  of 
tottering  ecclesiasticism  and  religious  declension  on  the  part  of 
organized  Christianity;  in  this  age  when  the  churches  have 
dissipated  their  energies  in  senseless  competitions,  sectarian- 
rivalries,  and  profitless  schisms  which  have  split  into  yet  more 
futile  parts;  when  church  debts  accumulate  and  parishes 
dwindle;  when  pastors  are  ill  paid  and  ill  fed;  in  the  face  of 
destitution,  depravity  and  utter  shameless  godlessness;  con- 
fronted as  we  are  by  such  invincible  evidences  of  failure  as 
are  the  miseries,  the  sins,  the  poverty,  the  moral  heathenisms 
and  civilized  savageries  of  to-day,  the  need  is  no  less  impera- 
tive than  in  the  days  of  the  Reformation  for  a  return  to  the 
purity  of  doctrine,  the  primitive  simplicity  and  successful 
ministry  of  the  early  Christian  church. 

The  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  its  reformer, 
its  great  leader  in  the  person  of  Martin  Luther.  Christian 
Science,  the  epoch-making  event  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
which  has  inaugurated  and  is  leading  one  of  the  greatest  re- 
ligious reformations  in  history,  has  had  its  reformer  and  in- 
domitable leader  in  Mary  Baker  Eddy.    It  is  exemplifying  the 

349 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

simplicity  and  the  unity  of  faith  and  practice  of  primitive 
Christianity;  it  is  restoring  the  heaHng  efficacy  of  the  Truth 
which  Jesus  taught  and  demonstrated.  His  great  Hfe  work 
was  not  confined  to  the  three  years  of  His  personal  ministry  in 
Judea. 

"Its  purpose  extends  through  time  and  touches  universal 
humanity.  Its  Principle  is  infinite,  extending  beyond  the  pale 
of  a  single  period  or  a  limited  following,  and  as  time  moves  on 
the  healing  elements  of  pure  Christianity  will  be  fairly  dealt 
with,  sought  and  taught  and  will  glow  in  all  the  grandeur  of 
universal  goodness."^ 

Christian  Science  places  especial  emphasis  upon  the  first 
great  commandment  of  the  moral  law,  given  from  Mount 
Sinai,  "Thou  shall  have  no  other  gods  before  me."  This  com- 
mandment demonstrates  Christian  Science,  inculcating  as  it 
does  the  tri-unity  of  God,  Spirit,  Mind.  Spiritually  inter- 
preted, it  signifies  that  man  shall  have  no  other  spirit  or  mind 
but  God,  eternal  Good,  and  that  all  men  shall  have  that  one 
Mind. 

"The  divine  Principle  of  that  first  and  greatest  command- 
ment of  all  bases  the  science  of  being  whereby  man  demon- 
strates health,  holiness  and  life  eternal.  One  infinite  God,  good, 
unifies  men  and  nations;  constitutes  the  brotherhood  of  man; 
ends  wars;  fulfils  the  Scripture,  'Love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self; annihilates  pagan  and  Christian  idolatry — whatever  is 
wrong  in  social,  civil,  criminal,  political  and  religious  codes ; 
equalizes  the  sexes;  annuls  the  curse  on  man,  and  leaves 
nothing  that  can  sin,  suffer,  be  punished  or  destroyed."^ 

The  Outcome. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  the  outcome?  This  inquiry  is  one 
which  we  raised  at  the  outset;  it  is  one  with  which  we  close 

^Science  and  Health,  pages  328-329. 
=^  Science  and  Health,  page  340. 

350 


THE  INFINITE  END 

this  volume.  The  answer  is  writ  large  upon  the  face  of  the 
foregoing  facts  and  considerations;  so  large  that  he  who  runs 
may  read.  It  points  unmistakably  to  the  fulfilment  of  two 
notable  predictions  made  by  the  founder  of  Christian  Science 
not  many  years  ago. 

The  first  prediction  illustrates  her  profound  faith  in  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth. 

'The  impersonation  of  the  spiritual  idea  had  a  brief  his- 
tory in  the  earthly  life  of  our  Master:  but,  *of  His  kingdom 
there  shall  be  no  end/  for  Christ,  God's  idea,  will  eventually 
rule  all  nations  and  peoples — imperatively,  absolutely,  finally, 
with  Divine  Science." 

The  second  is  no  less  impressive  in  its  expression  of  her  su- 
preme confidence  in  the  spread  of  Christian  Science. 

*Tf  the  lives  of  Christian  Scientists  attest  their  fidelity  to 
Truth,  I  predict  that  in  the  Twentieth  Century,  every  Christian 
church  in  the  land,  and  a  few  in  far-off  lands,  will  approximate 
the  understanding  of  Christian  Science  sufficiently  to  heal  the 
sick  in  His  name;  Christ  will  give  to  humanity  His  new  name 
and  Christendom  will  be  classified  as  Christian  Science." 


And  unto  Christ,  Truth,  Christian  Science  in  these  latter 
days  upbuilds  a  temple  dedicated  to  the  one,  only,  true  God 
who  hath  ordained  the  way  of  salvation  for  all.  Wrought  in 
the  granite  of  the  everlasting  hills,  lofty  domed,  and  crowned 
with  the  emblem  of  light  and  love,  it  symbolizes  the  religious 
faith  of  many  thousands  and  commemorates  their  high  pur- 
pose to  establish  a  church  that  shall  be  built  upon  the  Rock, 
Christ  Jesus,  and  that  shall  restore  to  the  world  primitive, 
Christianity  and  its  lost  element  of  healing. 

It  beckons  to  those  who  are  near  and  to  those  afar  off,  that 
they  may  see,  and  seeing,  may  gather  in  a  holy  Christian  service 
that  shall  be  acceptable  to  God  and  bear  witness  to  the  abund- 
ance of  salvation  through  His  divine  Christ. 

Surely  it  shall  be,  as  in  the  vision  of  the  Revelator,  that  a 

351 


ALTAR   FIRES  RELIGHTED 

spiritual  temple  of  Truth  shall  be  raised  in  the  earth,  fair  and 
royal,  whose  maker  and  builder  is  God;  a  temple  that  hath 
foundations  of  precious  stones  and  gates  of  pearl ;  that  shall 
stand  in  glorious  splendor  within  and  without;  its  walls  of 
adamant  and  crumbling  not ;  a  temple  whereof  Truth  is  grained 
in  the  corner-stone;  Love  joining  its  every  arch  and  cementing 
the  foundation  of  its  every  pillar;  a  house  not  made  with 
hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,  in  which  the  Hving  church  of 
God  may  worship.  The  beams  of  the  sun  of  righteousness 
illume  with  morn  its  lofty  dome  of  drossless  gold ;  beheld  afar 
'tis  a  voice  of  wooing  to  the  world : 

"Come  ye  up  to  Jerusalem,  ye  tribes  of  men — haste  ye  to 
gather  at  the  shrine  of  Truth.  Let  the  nations  tarry  not  and 
let  the  uttermost  isles  of  the  sea  make  journey  to  the  city  of 
light.  There  evil  entereth  not,  neither  sickness  nor  sorrow ; 
neither  hath  death  dominion  over  man,  for  all  rewards  of  right- 
eousness are  with  the  sons  of  God." 

"For,  behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  He 
will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and  God 
Himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God.  And  God  shall 
wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes;  and  there  shall  be  no 
more  death,  neither  sorrow,  nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be 
any  more  pain ; 

for  the  former  things  are  passed  away." 


OF  THE  \ 

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